Inverse Kinematics Control Methods for Redundant Snakelike Robot Teleoperation During Minimally Invasive Surgery

The real-time teleoperation or telemanipulation of redundant snakelike robots for minimally invasive surgery in a master-slave configuration is a complex problem. There are many possible mappings between a master's standard 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) and a redundant slave robot, typically with n ≫ 6 DOF. This letter introduces a snakelike robot for ear, nose, and throat surgery. The robot's architecture is comprised of n = 26 joint variables. Six different control methods were investigated. The methods are compared through simulation with a user study. Each participant performed the same task using each of the six different control methods. Based on the metrics selected, the sparse pseudo-L 0 and our proposed approach performed better in terms of intuitiveness, real-time capabilities, and overall occupied volume.