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Review Article
A Review on Robot in Prosthodontics and Orthodontics
Jin-gang Jiang,1 Yong-de Zhang,1 Chun-ge Wei,1 Tian-hua He,1 and Yi Liu2
1
Intelligent Machine Institute, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin 150080, China
2
Peking University School of Stomatology, Beijing 100081, China
Copyright Jin-gang Jiang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Application of robot to prosthodontics and orthodontics is a novel application of robot technology in medical field. This kind of
robots can realize the manufacturing of complete or partial denture, dental implantology, and the bending of archwire. We have
conducted a critical review on the development of application of robot in prosthodontics and orthodontics to identify the limitations
of existing studies and clarify some promising research directions in this field. This paper is presented to summarize our findings
and understanding. The main problems in its development are analyzed, the development trend is foreseen, and the future research
is discussed.
orthodontics [12]. Application of robot in surgery and other CRS robot Electromagnetic gripper
medical fields reminds us that an automatic system may
Robot controller
also be able to play an important role in prosthodontics and
orthodontics.
With the development of robotics and artificial intelli-
gence theory, and the urgent requirements of prosthodontics
and orthodontics, a new type of medical robot, such as robot
in prosthodontics and orthodontics, is appeared. Robot in
prosthodontics and orthodontics can realize the following
functions, such as the manufacturing of complete or partial
denture, dental implantology, and the bending of archwire. Worktable
Rich experience and technique between experienced dental Light source
specialist and skilled technician is integrated to the software Computer and
of prosthodontics and orthodontics expert system. Then Light-sensitive glue control software
robot in prosthodontics and orthodontics realizes the man-
ufacturing of complete or partial denture, dental implantol-
ogy, and the bending of archwire. Robot in prosthodontics Figure 1: Single manipulator tooth-arrangement robot system for
and orthodontics is a whole new application of robotics complete denture.
in medical field. The study about robot in prosthodontics
and orthodontics also will be a theoretical and technical
innovation and breakthrough. Its successful application will
not only realize the quantification of complete denture or
partial restoration, dental implantology, and the bending of
archwire, but also promote the development of prosthodon-
tics, orthodontics, and relative fundamental theory.
Power supply
Bentley/Nevada
sensor conditioner
ADEPT robot
Displacement
output
Monitor
Strain gauge
output
F/T sensor
Test fixture
Rotation stage
Robot arm
Translation stage (linear guide)
Angulation part
Angle sensor
Torque sensor
Mini-implants
in bone
Insertion part
Patient/phantom
Motion mode of
coordinate
trajectory
pose
Archwire spring-back and bending points planning of drilling depth and the implant force. For orthodontics
should be analyzed to realize the accurate archwire archwire bending robot, the research in the future focuses on
bending. archwire spring-back and bending algorithm.
3.1.2. Research Difficulty. Function of the application of (3) Human-Computer Interaction Technology. Human-com-
robot in prosthodontics and orthodontics is different, so the puter interaction technology is one of the key technologies of
research difficulty also is not identical. motion control of the robot in prosthodontics and orthodon-
tics. For tooth-arrangement robot and dental implantol-
(1) Research difficulty of tooth-arrangement robot sys- ogy robot, the working environment is limited; there exist
tem is parameterized description oral character, such some illusions to the operators, such as the capturing and
as jaw arch curve and dental arch curve, 3D recon- adjustment operation of the whole robot and the adjustment
struction of complex shape artificial teeth, digital operation of drilling depth and posture. For orthodontics
description, accurate grasping and location of artifi- archwire bending robot, the research in the future focuses on
cial teeth, trajectory planning, and coordinated con- three-dimensional virtual display of personalized orthodon-
trol of robot. tics archwire on the screen, a virtual observation environment
for a designed personalized orthodontics archwire, and the
(2) Research difficulty of dental implantology robot sys- positions interactive modification of different loop. For the
tem is 3D reconstruction of preoperation oral cavity robot in prosthodontics and orthodontics, it is difficult to
CT image, the registration between intraoperative detect working condition and realize the operation with
navigation image and preoperative reconstruction multiple obstacles unstructured environment. For facilitating
image, structure design of robot in limited workspace, the operation, a kind of friendly human-computer interaction
and trajectory planning of robot. software should be designed to provide humanization input
(3) Research difficulty of orthodontics archwire bending and feedback for the operators.
robot system is spring-back analysis and bending
algorithm of archwire and generation of personalized
orthodontics archwire.
4. Conclusion
Because of the advantage of standardization, industrializa-
3.2. Future Development on Application of Robot in Prost- tion, and intelligence of the robot in prosthodontics and
hodontics and Orthodontics. Progress has been made in the orthodontics, it can accomplish the great revolution from
research of the application of robot in prosthodontics and qualitative to quantitative of prosthodontics and orthodon-
orthodontics, but it is not complete. Viewing from the state tics, and it has been an important development direction of
of the art of application of robot in prosthodontics and medical robot.
orthodontics and the market demand of oral cavity repair, the State of the art of application and research of robot
following research aspects should be done in the future. in prosthodontics and orthodontics is introduced, and the
basic requirements and research difficulties of robot in
(1) Novel Structure. High flexibility, reliability, and accuracy prosthodontics and orthodontics are pointed out; finally, the
are needed for the robot in prosthodontics and orthodontics, research of robot in prosthodontics and orthodontics in the
but the workspace is limited by the oral cavity. The flexibility future is expected from three aspects, such as new structure,
and the limited workspace are one pair of technical contra- sensor and control technique, and human-computer interac-
dictions, so the total planning and optimization to the robot tion technique.
is necessary. In general, China takes the leading position in the
In the precondition of satisfying the oral cavity repair, research of application of robot to tooth-arrangement; some
the reducing of degree of freedom of the robot is necessary. helpful explorations in the robot to tooth-arrangement the-
Using the dual relation in structure and property of serial ory of research and application have been taken by Harbin
robot and parallel robot, requirements for the structural University of Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of
design of robot in prosthodontics and orthodontics are met Technology, and School of Stomatology, Peking University.
by combining the high accuracy and simplified mechanical Various countries in the world have taken helpful explo-
structure performance of parallel robot and the flexibility ration in robot to dental implantology and orthodontics
operation of serial robot. archwire bending, but it still remains at theoretical research
and preliminary experiment level. With the development of
(2) Sensor and Control Technique. For tooth-arrangement correlation technique and theory, such as new structure, and
robot, it needs to grasp and manipulate accurately 14 com- sensor and control theory, the robot will be widely applied in
plicated artificial teeth. So tooth-arrangement robot needs a prosthodontics and orthodontics.
lot of degrees of freedom and sensors. A highly efficient and
coordinated control algorithm that is suitable for the tooth-
arrangement by robot is very crucial. For dental implantology Conflict of Interests
robot, the research in the future focuses on the registration
between intraoperative navigation image and preoperative The authors report no conflict of interests. The authors alone
reconstruction image, real-time acquisition, and feedback are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
10 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Acknowledgments [14] R.-J. Song, Y.-D. Zhang, Z.-F. Zhao, P.-J. Lu, and Y. Wang, A
tooth arrangement algorithm for robot aided denture process-
The authors are extremely grateful to the anonymous referees ing, Journal of Beijing Institute of Technology, vol. 21, no. 4, pp.
for their most insightful and constructive comments, which 474479, 2001.
have enabled them to improve the paper significantly. The [15] Y. D. Zhang, Z. F. Zhao, R. J. Song, J. L. Lu, P. J. Lu, and Y. Wang,
authors are also grateful to the technical editor for reviewing Tooth arrangement for the manufacture of a complete denture
and editing the paper. This research was supported by using a robot, Industrial Robot, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 420425, 2001.
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant [16] P. Lu, Y. Wang, and G. Li, Development of a system for robot
no. 51205093), the Heilongjiang Province Education Bureau aided teeth alignment of complete denture, Chinese journal of
Project (Grant no. 12541147), and the National High Technol- stomatology, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 139142, 2001.
ogy Research and Development Program of China (Grant no. [17] Y.-D. Zhang, Z.-F. Zhao, P.-J. Lu, Y. Wang, R.-J. Song, and J.-L.
2013AA040803). Lu, Robotic system approach for complete denture manufac-
turing, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, vol. 7, no. 3,
pp. 392396, 2002.
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