Surgical robots are safety-critical devices that require multiple domains of safety features. This article focuses on the passive gravity compensation design optimization of a surgical robot. The limits of this optimization are related with the safety features including minimization of the total moving mass/inertia and compactness of the design. The particle swarm optimization method is used as a novel approach for the optimization of a parallel remote-center-of-motion mechanism. A compact design is achieved by partially balancing the mechanism, which also decreases the torque requirements from the actuators.
The performance of task-space tracking control of kinematically redundant robots regulating self-motion to ensure obstacle avoidance is studied and discussed. As the subtask objective, the links of the kinematically redundant assistive robot should avoid any collisions with the patient that is being assisted. The shortcomings of the obstacle avoidance algorithms are discussed and a new obstacle avoidance algorithm is proposed. The performance of the proposed algorithm is validated with tests that were carried out using the virtual model of a seven degrees-offreedom robot arm. The test results indicate that the developed controller for the robot manipulator is successful in both accomplishing the main-task and the sub-task objectives.
Method of decomposition has been successfully applied to function generation with multi-loop mechanisms. For a two-loop mechanism, a function y = f(x) can be decomposed into two as w = g(x) and y = h(w) = h(g(x)) = f(x). This study makes use of the method of decomposition for two-loop mechanisms, where the errors from each loop are forced to match each other. In the first loop, which includes the input of the mechanism, the decomposed function (g) is generated and the resulting structural error is determined. Then, for the second loop, the desired output of the function (f) is considered as an input and the structural error of the decomposed function (g) is determined. By matching the obtained structural errors, the final error in the output of the mechanism is reduced. Three different correction methods are proposed. The first method has three precision points per loop, while the second method has four. In the third method, the extrema of the errors from both loops are matched. The methods are applied to a Watt II type planar six-bar linkage for demonstration. Several numerical examples are worked out and the results are compared with the results in the literature.
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