Haptic bilateral teleoperation system for free-hand dental procedures
Lorenzo Pagliara, Vincenzo Petrone, Enrico Ferrentino, Andrea Chiacchio, Giovanni Russo
TL;DR
This work addresses the lack of robotic support for free hand dental procedures by introducing a haptic bilateral teleoperation system (FH-HBTS) that pairs a leader haptic device with a follower robot via a passive connection and integrates an eye in hand camera for enhanced visibility. The system combines an eye hand coordination controller with an admittance based robot controller and a force limitation strategy to achieve view consistent motion, force correspondence, and Safe interaction without requiring explicit environment modeling. The main contributions include a view consistent bilateral mapping, a continuous environment independent force limitation mechanism, and a TRL-5 validated platform demonstrated on a SRP task with in vitro tests on a dental model. The results indicate improved safety, naturalness, and accuracy of teleoperation, supporting broader adoption of robotics in dentistry and enabling data-driven and autonomous developments in the future.
Abstract
Free-hand dental procedures are typically repetitive, time-consuming and require high precision and manual dexterity. 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. To address this gap, we develop a haptic bilateral teleoperation system (HBTS) for free-hand dental procedures (FH-HBTS). The system includes a 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 and the robot's actions, monitored through visual feedback, we enhance the operator's sensory awareness and motor accuracy. Furthermore, 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 FH-HBTS is validated both through a technical evaluation and an in-vitro pre-clinical study conducted on a dental model under clinically representative conditions. The results show that the system improves the naturalness, safety, and accuracy of teleoperation, highlighting its potential to enhance free-hand dental procedures.