Design of a Microrobotic Wrist for Needle Laparoscopic Surgery

This paper addresses the design of a microwrist for needle laparoscopic surgery (needlescopy) using microelectromechanical system technology and an original three degree of freedom, 3D architecture. Advancement in needlescopy drives the development of multi-DOF microtools 1-2 mm in diameter with 3D mobility but standard available fabrication techniques are for 2.5D structures. Thus paper discusses the development steps and design solutions for the realization of the 3D wrist with available technology. A compliant mechanism is used, which is derived from a reference parallel kinematics mechanism architecture with three legs. A singular configuration of increased instantaneous mobility is exploited to achieve the desired 3D mobility. Alternative leg architectures are investigated to obtain satisfactory performance. The legs are fabricated as monolithic compliant structures and assembled to wrist base and end-effector. The definition of the leg geometry revealed a complex task. The steps to obtain the final design satisfying task requirements are detailed.

[1]  G. K. Ananthasuresh,et al.  Mechanical Design of Compliant Microsystems—A Perspective and Prospects , 2005 .

[2]  Ádám Révész,et al.  Microstructural characterization of ultrafine-grained nickel , 2003 .

[3]  C. Kum,et al.  Randomized trial of needlescopic versus laparoscopic cholecystectomy , 2001, The British journal of surgery.

[4]  Mark Bush,et al.  The effects of grain size and porosity on the elastic modulus of nanocrystalline materials , 1999 .

[5]  B. Challacombe,et al.  Trends in robotic surgery. , 2005, Journal of endourology.

[6]  S Kota,et al.  Design and application of compliant mechanisms for surgical tools. , 2005, Journal of biomechanical engineering.

[7]  K. A. Padmanabhan.  Mechanical properties of nanostructured materials , 2001 .

[8]  F Cepolina,et al.  Review of robotic fixtures for minimally invasive surgery , 2004, The international journal of medical robotics + computer assisted surgery : MRCAS.

[9]  Matteo Zoppi,et al.  Snail surgeon: a new robotic system for minimally invasive surgery , 2005, Proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Robot Motion and Control, 2005. RoMoCo '05..

[10]  Matteo Zoppi,et al.  L-legs for the Design of Mini and Micro Parallel Compliant Mechanisms , 2006 .

[11]  Sridhar Kota,et al.  Design of Compliant Mechanisms: Applications to MEMS , 2001 .

[12]  Ken Masamune,et al.  Two-DOFs Bending Forceps Manipulator of 3.5-mm diameter for Intrauterine Fetus Surgery: Feasibility Evaluation , 2006 .

[13]  Ichiro Sakuma,et al.  Compact forceps manipulator for laparoscopic surgery , 2005, 2005 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[14]  Matteo Zoppi,et al.  4-DOF Parallel Architecture for Laparoscopic Surgery , 2008 .

[15]  I. Lai,et al.  Minilaparoscopic (needlescopic) cholecystectomy: a study of 1,011 cases , 2004, Surgical Endoscopy And Other Interventional Techniques.

[16]  Jeongwon Park,et al.  Improvement of the biocompatibility and mechanical properties of surgical tools with TiN coating by PACVD , 2003 .

[17]  C. M. Schlachta,et al.  Needlescopic surgery , 2001, Surgical Endoscopy.

[18]  Mary Frecker,et al.  Design Innovation Size and Shape Optimization of a 1.0mm Multifunctional Forceps-Scissors Surgical Instrument , 2008 .

[19]  V. Parenti-Castelli,et al.  Position Analysis in Analytical Form of the 3-PSP Mechanism , 2001 .

[20]  Clément Gosselin,et al.  Analytical kinematics models and special geometries of a class of 4-DOF parallel mechanisms , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[21]  C. Gosselin,et al.  Advantages of the modified Euler angles in the design and control of PKMs , 2002 .