Autonomous Robotic Bone Micro-Milling System with Automatic Calibration and 3D Surface Fitting

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhao, Enduo, Lin, Xiaofeng, Wang, Yifan, Harada, Kanako
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zhao, Enduo
Lin, Xiaofeng
Wang, Yifan
Harada, Kanako
author_facet Zhao, Enduo
Lin, Xiaofeng
Wang, Yifan
Harada, Kanako
contents Automating bone micro-milling using a robotic system presents challenges due to the uncertainties in both the external and internal features of bone tissue. For example, during mouse cranial window creation, a circular path with a radius of 2 to 4 mm needs to be milled on the mouse skull using a microdrill. The uneven surface and non-uniform thickness of the mouse skull make it difficult to fully automate this process, requiring the system to possess advanced perceptual and adaptive capabilities. In this study, we address this challenge by integrating a Microscopic Stereo Camera System (MSCS) into the robotic bone micro-milling system and proposing a novel online pre-measurement pipeline for the target surface. Starting from uncalibrated cameras, the pipeline enables automatic calibration and 3D surface fitting through a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based keypoint detection. Combined with the existing feedback-based system, we develop the world's first autonomous robotic bone micro-milling system capable of rapidly, in real-time perceiving and adapting to surface unevenness and non-uniform thickness, thereby enabling an end-to-end autonomous cranial window creation workflow without human assistance. Validation experiments on euthanized mice demonstrate that the improved system achieves a success rate of 85.7 % and an average milling time of 2.1 minutes, showing not only significant performance improvements over the previous system but also exceptional accuracy, speed, and stability compared to human operators.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_04038
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Autonomous Robotic Bone Micro-Milling System with Automatic Calibration and 3D Surface Fitting
Zhao, Enduo
Lin, Xiaofeng
Wang, Yifan
Harada, Kanako
Robotics
Systems and Control
Automating bone micro-milling using a robotic system presents challenges due to the uncertainties in both the external and internal features of bone tissue. For example, during mouse cranial window creation, a circular path with a radius of 2 to 4 mm needs to be milled on the mouse skull using a microdrill. The uneven surface and non-uniform thickness of the mouse skull make it difficult to fully automate this process, requiring the system to possess advanced perceptual and adaptive capabilities. In this study, we address this challenge by integrating a Microscopic Stereo Camera System (MSCS) into the robotic bone micro-milling system and proposing a novel online pre-measurement pipeline for the target surface. Starting from uncalibrated cameras, the pipeline enables automatic calibration and 3D surface fitting through a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based keypoint detection. Combined with the existing feedback-based system, we develop the world's first autonomous robotic bone micro-milling system capable of rapidly, in real-time perceiving and adapting to surface unevenness and non-uniform thickness, thereby enabling an end-to-end autonomous cranial window creation workflow without human assistance. Validation experiments on euthanized mice demonstrate that the improved system achieves a success rate of 85.7 % and an average milling time of 2.1 minutes, showing not only significant performance improvements over the previous system but also exceptional accuracy, speed, and stability compared to human operators.
title Autonomous Robotic Bone Micro-Milling System with Automatic Calibration and 3D Surface Fitting
topic Robotics
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.04038