Researcher:
ASAP is a system for high-precision 3-D tracking of microsurgical instrument tip position for:
- Modeling of surgical hand motion
- Surgeon assessment and training
- Evaluating microsurgical instruments
- Evaluating accuracy enhancement systems, including robots and active hand-held instruments
- Input to microsurgery simulators
ASAP uses LED's to illuminate the workspace. It measures instrument tip position in 3-D using two 2-D position-sensitive detectors (PSD’s) to track multiple modulated sources (LED’s) mounted on the surgical instrument. A frequency-domain multiplexing scheme developed in our laboratory allows the tracker to distinguish each LED individually. This enables measurements of tip position in 6 degrees of freedom with very high accuracy (1-10 microns), a combination that has been lacking in previous instruments.