World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology

International Journal of Medical, Health, Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Engineering Vol:8 No:8, 2014

DTMF Based Robot Assisted Tele Surgery

Vikas Pandey, T. L. Joshy, Vyshak Vijayan, N. Babu

II. MATERIALS AND METHODS

Abstract—A new and cost effective robotic device was designed
for remote tele surgery using dual tone multi frequency technology A. Block Diagram
(DTMF). Tele system with Dual Tone Multiple Frequency has a large Fig. 1 shows the block diagram of the robot assisted tele-
capability in sending and receiving of data in hardware and software. surgery. The important components of this robot are DTMF
The robot consists of DC motors for arm movements and it is
controlled manually through a mobile phone through DTMF decoder, Microcontroller and motor driver.
Technology. The system enables the surgeon from base station to
send commands through mobile phone to the patient’s robotic system
which includes two robotic arms that translate the input into actual
instrument manipulation. A mobile phone attached to the
microcontroller 8051 which can activate robot through relays. The
Remote robot-assisted tele surgery eliminates geographic constraints
International Science Index Vol:8, No:8, 2014 waset.org/Publication/9999326

for getting surgical expertise where it is needed and allows an expert

surgeon to teach or proctor the performance of surgical technique by
real-time intervention.

Keywords—Robot, Microcontroller, DTMF, Tele surgery.

I. INTRODUCTION
Fig. 1 Block diagram of the robot assisted tele-surgery
D UAL-TONE Multi-Frequency Signaling (DTMF) is used
for telecommunication between telephone lines in the
voice-frequency band between telephone handsets and other
B. Power Supply
A step-down transformer is used to step down the supply
communications devices. The DTMF used in push button
voltage of 230V ac from mains to lower values, as the various
telephones for tone dialing is known as Touch-Tone. The
IC’s used in this project require reduced voltages. The primary
DTMF technology can also be used in GSM mobile phones.
of the transformer is connected to main supply through on/off
Global System for Communication is an open, digital cellular
switch & fuse for protecting from overload and short circuit
technology used for transmitting voice and data and is the most
protection. The secondary is connected to the diodes to
widely used accepted standard and is implemented globally.
convert 12V AC to 12V DC voltage and filtered by the
Using the GSM mobile phone with DTMF technology a
capacitors, which are further regulated to +5V, by using IC
robotic device can be operated at a distance. Tele operation
7805. The circuit diagram for power supply is as shown in Fig.
can also be possible with radio frequency waves. But normal
2.
RF has limitation when there is an interference of similar
wavelength of another RF. This might affect the quality of the
transmission and might leads to receive corrupted or error
signal. The evolution of surgical robots has led to a current
generation of real-time tele-manipulators. A Robotic system
was designed to assist the surgeon by taking control of the
laparoscopic camera and responding to voice commands [1],
[2]. Early systems required the surgeon to be in the same room
as the patient. However, with the use of telecommunications,
both tele-monitoring and tele-manipulation were attempted
from remote locations [3], [4]. In this work, we developed and Fig. 2 Circuit diagram for power supply.
present a surgical manipulator which is cost effective a device C. Dual Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF)
for performing both minimally invasive surgery (MIS) and
DTMF is one of the common GSM technologies which
open surgery, operating from remote area using DTMF
provide telecommunication signaling over analog telephone
technology.
lines between communications devices and also applied in the
touch-tone (push button) system of mobiles over wireless
Vikas Pandey, T. L. Joshy, Vyshak Vijayan and N. Babu (*Corresponding
author) are with the Department of Biomedical engineering, V.M.K.V communications. The basis of using dual tone in DTMF
Engineering College, Vinayaka Mission University, Salem – 636308 (e mail: communication is, if two tones were used to represent a digit,
[email protected], [email protected], vyshakvijayan04@ the likelihood of a false signal occurring is ruled out. The
gmail.com, [email protected]).

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International Journal of Medical, Health, Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Engineering Vol:8 No:8, 2014

keypad of DTMF is laid out in a 4×4/4x3 matrix, with each on receiving the tone-pair, causing a particular LED
row representing a low frequency, and each column (connected to pin 15 of IC via resistor R15) to glow. It will be
representing a high frequency. The low band row frequencies high for duration depending on the values of capacitor and
are 697 Hz, 770 Hz, 852 Hz, and 941 Hz and high band resistors at pins 16 and 17. Table I shows pressed keys in
column frequencies are 1209 Hz, 1336 Hz, 1477 and 1633 Hz. keypad and glowing of corresponding LEDs (1 - On, 0 - Off).
Each key pre generates two tons of specific frequencies. The frequencies generated on phone keys are shown in Table
One tone is generated from a high frequency group of tones II.
and the other from low frequency group [5]. The DTMF signal
TABLE I
is generated whenever a key is pressed from a phone while a KEYS AND CORRESPONDING LEDS
call is being made. This signal was utilized to give inputs to a Key LED 4 LED 3 LED 2 LED 1
remote via a DTMF decoder and a microcontroller, which in 1 0 0 0 1
turn controls the movements of the connected actuator. The 2 0 0 1 0
circuit diagram for decoding the DTMF tones is given in Fig. 3 0 0 1 1
3. 4 0 1 0 0
5 0 1 0 1
6 0 1 1 0
7 0 1 1 1
8 1 0 0 0
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9 1 0 0 1
0 1 0 1 0
* 1 0 1 1
# 1 1 0 0

TABLE II
FREQUENCIES GENERATED ON PHONE KEYS
Frequency (Hz) 1209 1336 1477
697 1 2 3
770 4 5 6
852 7 8 9
941 * 0 #

D.Microcontroller and DTMF Detection

The DTMF detection and the control of devise arms for
Fig. 3 Circuit diagram for decoding the DTMF tones
making surgery is integrated by Microcontroller 8051. A
Using the DTMF technology, it sends distinct microcontroller is a small computer containing a processor
representation of 12/16 common alphanumeric characters 0-9, core memory and programmable I/O peripherals. Today, most
* and # on the mobile / telephone. The DTMF keypad is telephone equipment use DTMF receiver IC. One common
arranged such that each row and column will have its own DTMF receiver IC is the Motorola MT8870 that is widely
unique tone frequency. A SIM (Subscriber Identity module) used in electronic communications circuits. The MT8870 is an
was assigned to a receiver mobile and this SIM was called 18-pin IC. It is used in telephones and a variety of other
from user mobile which act as transmitter of DTMF tones. The applications. In our project also DTMF detection was done by
receiver will receive the call and receive the DTMF tones one DTMF decoder MT8870 as most of the DTMF based remote
by one while pressing the keys from the user mobile. For control system used. The DTMF detection and control process
optimum working of mobile /telephone equipment, the DTMF require some programming and here Keil software is used for
receiver must be designed to recognize a valid tone pair this purpose. Keil Software makes C compilers, macro
greater than 40 ms in duration and to accept successive digit assemblers, real-time kernels, debuggers, simulators,
tone-pairs that are greater than 40 ms apart. However, for other integrated environments, and evaluation boards for the 8051,
applications like remote controls and radio communications, 251, ARM, and XC16x/C16x/ST10 microcontroller families.
the tone duration may differ due to noise considerations. Fig. 3 shows the block diagram for DTMF based tele surgery.
Therefore, by adding an extra resistor and steering diode the The DTMF tones produced from mobile touch buttons was
tone duration can be set to different values. The circuit is decoded and given to microcontroller which sends different
configured in balanced line mode. To reject common-mode output signals to the different relays which are used to activate
noise signals, a balanced differential amplifier input is used. the robot and robot arms. The relay circuit was given in Fig. 4.
To know, which key was pressed in mobile/telephone, there is The various functions are assigned to move the robot and their
a set LED arrangements are connected to output of decoder IC. arms for every keypads of the mobile/telephone. The functions
Whenever a key on local telephone keypad was pressed, for for the keypads of zero to nine and * are given in Table III.
example 5, the delayed tearing (Std) output of the IC goes high

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International Journal of Medical, Health, Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Engineering Vol:8 No:8, 2014

Fig. 4 Circuit diagram for operating relay.

TABLE III
FUNCTIONS OF KEYPADS Fig. 6 Photograph of Robot for telesurgery
Key Functions
1 Forward III. DISCUSSION
2 Reverse
Number of communicating techniques such as GPRS,
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3 Right
Bluetooth, infra-red and RF transmission etc. are already
4 Left
available for two way data transfer. Normal RF
5 Rotate Right
6 Rotate Left
communication has limitation when there is an interference of
7 Down similar wavelength of another RF also it will be blocked by
8 Up walls or obstacles. For reliable communication DTMF was
9 Place used for its low cost, simplicity, reliability, good audibility and
0 Pick accuracy. Dual Tone Multi Frequency encoding scheme as a
* Stop method for communicating simple messages to operate the
arms of the robot for surgery was designed and implemented.
Figs. 5 and 6 show the photo copy of wired circuit board The possibility of performing complex manipulations from
and Robot for tele surgery. remote locations allows an expert surgeon to teach or proctor
the performance of an advanced or new technique by real-time
intervention and actually eliminates geographic constraints for
obtaining high surgical expertise where this is required [6].
Robotic and computer technologies have the potential to
enhance precision and dexterity [7]-[9] and to allow
performance of surgical procedures from a remote distance
[10]. This robotic system is more suitable for stationary sender
and receiver as communication breaks down between the
sender and receiver, or both when they are in motion. This
technique also has some disadvantages; lack of face to face
contact between patient and doctor, delays in transmission,
equipment failure in robot side etc. But the technique of
DTMF was used for its simplicity, cost effective, popularity
and used with already existing mobile and telephone industry.

IV. CONCLUSION
DTMF communication technique is a highly reliable and
cost effective for robotic tele-surgery. This project has
described the design and implementation of feasible Dual
Tone Multi Frequency encoding scheme as a method for doing
remote tele surgery. This method eliminates geographic
constraints for obtaining high surgical expertise where it is
required and allows an expert surgeon to teach or examine the
new techniques by real-time intervention. In addition to
enhancing the human performance, robotic systems provides
Fig. 5 Photograph of wired circuit board
the unique ability to perform surgery in remote locations.

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 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology
International Journal of Medical, Health, Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Engineering Vol:8 No:8, 2014

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors express their sincere thanks to Mr. Palanisamy,
Project engineer and in-charge, department of biomedical
engineering, Vinayaka Mission Hospital, Salem for his idea
and encouragement in this project.

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