Kinematic and Manipulability Analysis of Hybrid Robot Used in Tele-Echography Application

Robots are increasingly resorted to in medical application due to their high accuracy and precision. Among many types of medical applications, tele-echography system is widely used for its convenience and safety. This paper describes a new architecture of a medical manipulator system for tele-echography application. The kinematic structure of the proposed robot is composed of two main parts: The first one is about the translation module, which is a five-bar linkage and the second one is the orientation module, whose main task is to produce spherical motion around the contact point with the skin. Thus three architectures are proposed. To verify that our models generate the required movement by the application, a simulation of workspace is presented. Furthermore, the evaluation of the kinematic manipulability of the linkage mechanism is given in order to determine the best postures and the singularities of the translation module in its workspace.