Optimizing port placement for robot-assisted minimally invasive cardiac surgery

Background: Proper placement of ports during robot-assisted endoscopic surgery is critical to the success of the procedure. In current practice, port placement methods do not consider the ability of the robot to manoeuvre the tools. Methods: This paper proposes to choose the best port location such that the performance of the robot is maximized. The Global Conditioning Index (GCI) is used to optimize port placement when using the da Vinci® surgical system during cardiac surgery. Results: The results show that, due to a singularity at the remote centre of motion, higher performance is obtained the further away the port is from the workspace. When compared to the ports selected by an expert surgeon, our results show that it is possible to increase robot performance by at least 29% for the left arm of the robot. Conclusions: Selecting an adequate port location can improve robot performance and ensure that the instruments reach the surgical site.