Kinematic, workspace and singularity analysis of a new parallel robot used in minimally invasive surgery

In the last ten years, due to development in robotic assisted surgery, the minimally invasive surgery has greatly changed. Until now, the vast majority of robots used in surgery, have serial structures. Due to the orientation parallel module, the structure is able to reduce the pressure exerted on the entrance point in the patient’s abdominal wall. The parallel robot can also handle both a laparoscope as well an active instrument for different surgical procedures. The advantage of this parallel structure is that the geometric model has been obtained through an analytical approach. The kinematic modelling of a new parallel architecture, the inverse and direct geometric model and the inverse and direct kinematic models for velocities and accelerations are being determined. The paper will demonstrate that with this parallel structure, one can obtain the necessary workspace required for a minimally invasive operation. The robot workspace was generated using the inverse geometric model. An indepth study of different types of singularity is performed, allowing the development of safe control algorithms of the experimental model. Some kinematic simulation results and the experimental model of the robot are presented in the paper.