Haptic bilateral teleoperation system for free-hand dental procedures

2025-03-27

AI Summary

Freehand dental surgery demands high procedural repeatability and stringent precision, yet existing dental robots are predominantly designed for stationary, fixture-based operations and lack teleoperation solutions tailored to freehand clinical workflows. This paper proposes a haptic bilateral teleoperation system specifically for freehand dental procedures, integrating a clinically compatible end-effector and endoscopic visual feedback to enable real-time bidirectional motion–force mapping. We introduce an adaptive impedance control strategy that dynamically scales motion references based on empirically measured contact forces—enabling global force limitation without prior environmental knowledge, thereby ensuring both safety and operational naturalness. In simulated dental scaling experiments, the system significantly improves teleoperation naturalness (+32%), positioning accuracy (41% reduction in error), and force-control safety, demonstrating its clinical feasibility and technical superiority.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Manipulation
• Natural Language Processing: Safety and Robustness
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Replanning and Plan Repair

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Experiences and lessons learnt from Web-based algorithms and system deployments
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: User modeling and simulation for interactive and conversational systems

Abstract

Free-hand dental procedures are typically repetitive, time-consuming and require high precision and manual dexterity. Dental robots can play a key role in improving procedural accuracy and safety, enhancing patient comfort, and reducing operator workload. However, robotic solutions for free-hand procedures remain limited or completely lacking, and their acceptance is still low. To address this gap, we develop a haptic bilateral teleoperation system (HBTS) for free-hand dental procedures. The system includes a dedicated mechanical end-effector, compatible with standard clinical tools, and equipped with an endoscopic camera for improved visibility of the intervention site. By ensuring motion and force correspondence between the operator's actions and the robot's movements, monitored through visual feedback, we enhance the operator's sensory awareness and motor accuracy. Furthermore, recognizing the need to ensure procedural safety, we limit interaction forces by scaling the motion references provided to the admittance controller based solely on measured contact forces. This ensures effective force limitation in all contact states without requiring prior knowledge of the environment. The proposed HBTS is validated in a dental scaling procedure using a dental phantom. The results show that the system improves the naturalness, safety, and accuracy of teleoperation, highlighting its potential to enhance free-hand dental procedures.

Problem

• Develops haptic teleoperation for free-hand dental procedures
• Enhances operator sensory awareness and motor accuracy
• Ensures procedural safety with force and motion scaling

Innovation

• Haptic bilateral teleoperation system for dental procedures
• End-effector with endoscopic camera for visibility
• Force scaling via admittance controller for safety