A new oscillating saw for robotic aided surgery.

In this paper a brief description of a computer and robotic aided surgery system is given with a detailed overview of the necessity to develop special tools for robotic surgery. The application range of this robotic system has been specially focused on the orthopaedics field and, more particularly, on the execution of osteotomies. It was therefore necessary to develop a new saw device which would meet medical and--from the robot system point of view--mechanical as well as functional requirements. After describing the device which was developed on the basis of these requirements, a detailed comparative study of off-the-shelf oscillating saws and the new device is given at the end of the paper.