Design of a robotic endoscope holder for sinus surgery

During endoscopic sinus surgery, to perform complex surgical procedures in the delicate nasal cavity, endoscope holding devices are needed. This paper presents a novel robotic system with safe locking and easy to release system that assists surgeons in holding the endoscope. The presented robotic system has eleven degrees of freedom (DOF). The robot consists of an elevator mechanism, a positioning arm and a fine adjustment device. The positioning arm which adopts a negatively actuated air-locking system, consist of three modular rotational joints and two modular ball joints. Since the positioning arm has a structure such that it normally assumes a locked state, and an unlocked state only when necessary, the locked state of the arm can be maintained even if any trouble occurs, causing no falling of the whole robot. The mechanical models of the modular rotational joints and modular ball joints have been derived to guide the detailed design of the prototype of the robot. The workspace of the robot has also been analyzed. Preliminary experiments with manikin have been conducted to demonstrate the performance of the robot.