Abstract
Accurate mechanical feedback systems are critical to the successful implementation of virtual and robotic surgical assistant systems. Experimental measurements of reaming force could further our understanding of the cancellous bone reaming process during hip arthroplasty to help develop surgical simulators with realistic force effects and improve the protection mechanism of robot-assisted surgical systems. In this study, reaming experiments with natural bone (porcine femur) and a bone substitute (polyurethane blocks) were performed on a CNC lathe. This paper proposes using the maximum reaming force of the steady reaming stage to represent the force characteristic. The reaming force is biased to one side in the overlap direction and the maximum reaming force will vary when the reamer is not coincident with the long axis of the bone. The diameter of the reamer has the greatest influence on reaming force, which clearly increases with increasing reamer diameter. During operation, a medium rotation speed and high feed speed can reduce the reaming force. After cutting, the morphology of the cut surface is not flat, but arc-shaped, which will have a significant impact on implantation of the femoral prosthesis. In in vitro cutting experiments, polyurethane blocks can be used as a substitute for cancellous bone.
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