Force and Torque Modeling for the Drilling of Bone for use in Orthopaedic Haptic Simulation Systems

The advent of haptic simulation systems for orthopaedic surgery procedures has provided surgeons with a tool for training and preoperative planning. This is especially true for procedures involving the drilling of bone which requires a great amount of adroitness and experience. One of the potential difficulties with the drilling of bone is the lack of consistent material evacuation from the drill’s flutes as the material tends to clog. This clogging leads to significant increases in force and torque experienced by the surgeon which has not been appropriately addressed by current simulation systems. This thesis proposes several force and torque prediction models that account for this phenomenon. Each of the models was calibrated via experimentation and their accuracy was substantiated through an experimental validation process. As an example of the application of the models, a finite element simulation investigating the effect of drilling forces and moments on the dynamic response of a femur bone was studied.