Design and modelling of a variable stiffness manipulator for surgical robots

Le, Huu Minh; Cao, Lin; Nho, Thanh; Phee, Soo Jay

doi:10.1016/j.mechatronics.2018.05.012

Cited by 44 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(41 reference statements)

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“…[ 59 ] Because of these benefits, PET was already reported as a potential variable stiffness manipulator for surgical robots. [ 12 ] The selected stainless‐steel coil used in this paper is highly flexible and, therefore, it does not affect the stiffness of the gripper in the rubbery state. There are several advantages of using the proposed VSS design.…”

Section: Design and Fabrication Of Fluid‐driven Soft Helical Grippermentioning

confidence: 99%

Bio‐Inspired Conformable and Helical Soft Fabric Gripper with Variable Stiffness and Touch Sensing

Hoang

Phan

Thai

et al. 2020

Adv Materials Technologies

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compliance of constituent materials enables soft grippers to safely work with flexible, fragile, and delicate objects. A great number of actuation methods have been investigated, including cable-driven mechanisms, [19] fluid elastomer actuators (FEA), [20,21] dielectric elastomer actuators, [22,23] magnetic actuators, [24-26] and shape memory materials including metal alloys [27,28] and polymers. [29] Among these actuation methods, FEA is one of the oldest and the most widespread technologies employed for soft robotic grippers owing to a number of advantages such as lightweight, high power-to-weight ratio, large stroke and force production, ease of fabrication, robustness, and low-cost materials. [30,31] FEA-based soft grippers have been mostly developed based on claws or human-like structures consisting of multiple inward-bending fingers. This design is suitable for gripping objects spanning a wide range of sizes. However, existing FEA-based grippers are ill-suited for applications that require high conformability or high-load sustainability. The integration of electro-adhesion, [23,32] gecko adhesion, [33,34] or variable stiffness structures (VSSs) can help improve the load capacity. Several studies also address both the issues by designing robotic fingers that can adjust their effective length via the use of segments of VSS. [21] Two main types of VSSs for soft grippers include vacuum-driven jamming of granules [35,36] or layers, [6] and phase-change materials such as thermoplastics, [12,37] shape memory polymers (SMPs), [20,21,38] and low-melting-point alloys (LMPAs). [22,39,40] In another approach, grippers with closed structures have been investigated in an attempt to improve both conformability and load capacity. [23,24,38-40] However, grippers with closed structures are not able to grip objects that are either smaller or larger than the opening orifice of the gripper. Another approach that has also been investigated involves the use of helical winding to enclose objects. This gripping strategy was inspired by natural instances such as elephant trunks, python body constriction, or cephalopod tentacles that use a continuum finger to helically grasp around the objects, thereby increasing the area of contact and stability between the gripper and objects. [41] Continuum, helical grippers that are not constrained by any host have the advantage of being free to wrap around objects and adapt to a wide range of object sizes, shapes, and orientations. There are many instances in nature where continuum, helical manipulators are used to efficiently grasp different objects with various shapes and sizes. Inspired by nature, this paper introduces a continuum, flat, scalable, helical soft-fabric robotic gripper that is thin and lightweight with stiffness tunability and sensory feedback. The gripper is fabricated by a facile method of simple insertion using a computerized technique from apparel engineering and controlled by a miniature hydraulic source to grasp different objects at different scales and weights. It uses a ...

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Section: Design and Fabrication Of Fluid‐driven Soft Helical Grippermentioning

confidence: 99%

Bio‐Inspired Conformable and Helical Soft Fabric Gripper with Variable Stiffness and Touch Sensing

Hoang

Phan

Thai

et al. 2020

Adv Materials Technologies

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“…Thermal sensors in combination with phase change materials have been also applied to variable stiffness structure for surgical robots. [263,264]…”

Section: Advanced Thermal Sensors For Surgical Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced Intelligent Systems for Surgical Robotics

Thai

Phan

Hoang

et al. 2020

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Surgical robots have had clinical use since the mid‐1990s. Robot‐assisted surgeries offer many benefits over the conventional approach including lower risk of infection and blood loss, shorter recovery, and an overall safer procedure for patients. The past few decades have shown many emerging surgical robotic platforms that can work in complex and confined channels of the internal human organs and improve the cognitive and physical skills of the surgeons during the operation. Advanced technologies for sensing, actuation, and intelligent control have enabled multiple surgical devices to simultaneously operate within the human body at low cost and with more efficiency. Despite advances, current surgical intervention systems are not able to execute autonomous tasks and make cognitive decisions that are analogous to those of humans. Herein, the historical development of surgery from conventional open to robotic‐assisted approaches with discussion on the capabilities of advanced intelligent systems and devices that are currently implemented in existing surgical robotic systems is reviewed. Also, available autonomous surgical platforms are comprehensively discussed with comments on the essential technologies, existing challenges, and suggestions for the future development of intelligent robotic‐assisted surgical systems toward the achievement of fully autonomous operation.

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“…The inherent compliant feature of the soft robots, on the other hand, poses critical challenges for achieving high structural stability and high loading capacity for specific applications, such as manipulation of heavy objects [ 9 ] and surgical operations. [ 10 ] To overcome this, one potential solution is to tune the stiffness of soft robots so that they can sustain external loads (including self‐weight) or exert large forces for robust interactions when needed. A variety of methodologies and materials have been proposed to adjust the stiffness of soft materials and structures, including electrorheological (ER) and magnetorheological (MR) fluids, [ 11 ] particle jamming, [ 12 ] thermoplastics, [ 13 ] shape memory polymers (SMPs), [ 14 ] and low melting point alloys (LMPAs).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft Robotic Manipulation System Capable of Stiffness Variation and Dexterous Operation for Safe Human–Machine Interactions

Chen

Pang

Cao

et al. 2021

Adv Materials Technologies

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Soft robots have attracted great attention in the past decades owing to their unique flexibility and adaptability for accomplishing tasks via simple control strategies, as well as their inherent safety for interactions with humans and environments. Here, a soft robotic manipulation system capable of stiffness variation and dexterous operations through a remotely controlled manner is reported. The smart manipulation system consists of a soft omnidirectional arm, a dexterous multimaterial gripper, and a self‐powered human–machine interface (HMI) for teleoperation. The cable‐driven soft arm is made of soft elastomers and embedded with low melting point alloy as a stiffness‐tuning mechanism. The self‐powered HMI patches are designed based on the triboelectric nanogenerator that utilizes a sliding mode of tribo‐layers made of copper and polytetrafluoroethylene. The novel soft manipulation system has great potential for soft and remote manipulation and human machine interactions in a variety of applications from elderly care to surgical operation to agriculture harvesting.

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Design and modelling of a variable stiffness manipulator for surgical robots

Cited by 44 publications

References 36 publications

Bio‐Inspired Conformable and Helical Soft Fabric Gripper with Variable Stiffness and Touch Sensing

Bio‐Inspired Conformable and Helical Soft Fabric Gripper with Variable Stiffness and Touch Sensing

Advanced Intelligent Systems for Surgical Robotics

Soft Robotic Manipulation System Capable of Stiffness Variation and Dexterous Operation for Safe Human–Machine Interactions

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