Design and Analysis of a Novel Articulated Drive Mechanism for Multifunctional NOTES Robot

Abstract

This paper presents a novel articulated drive mechanism (ADM) for a multifunctional natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) robotic manipulator. It consists mainly of three major components including a snakelike linkage, motor housing, and an arm connector. The ADM can articulate into complex shapes for improved access to surgical targets. A connector provides an efficient and convenient modularity for insertion and removal of the robot. Four DC motors guide eight cables to steer the robot. The workspace, cable displacement and force transmission relationships are derived. Experimental results give preliminary validation of the feasibility and capability of the ADM system.

Disposable Fluidic Actuators for Miniature In-Vivo Surgical Robotics

“…The vision of this research is to make a bimanual robot for NOTES using two of these arms connected together and delivered to the abdominal cavity by a snake robot as described in Refs. [9] and [10]. The work described in Ref.…”

“…The outer diameter (OD) of the cylinder should be less than 11 mm so that the overall diameter of a bimanual robot (with the arms parallel) is less than a typical esophagus diameter, which is approximately 22 mm [9]. The length of the cylinder should be less than 25 mm so that it can fit in a typical miniature robotic arm [10]. The stroke of the cylinder needs to be on the range of 2-6 mm for typical joint and tool actuation.…”

“…Surgical robotics is advancing from externally actuated systems such as the da Vinci V R Surgical System [1] to miniature in-vivo robotics where the entire robot is inserted into the patient's body [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. However, with miniaturization of surgical robots, there comes a trade-off between the size of the robot and its capability [15].…”

“…However, with miniaturization of surgical robots, there comes a trade-off between the size of the robot and its capability [15]. Miniature electric motors have been used in many in-vivo robots [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] as the primary means of actuation. Slow actuation, low load capacity, sterilization difficulty, leaking electricity and transferring produced heat to tissues, and high cost are among the key limitations of the use of electric motors in in-vivo applications [15][16][17].…”

“…Recent development has focused on design of snakelike robots for NOTES. Several generations of a multifunctional snake robot for NOTES have been built and tested [9,10]. A multipleinstrument manipulator is delivered to the surgical site using a snake robot.…”