Dexterous miniature robot for advanced minimally invasive surgery

Abstract

This study demonstrates the feasibility of using a miniature robot to perform complex, single-incision, minimal access surgery. Instrument positioning and lack of triangulation complicate single-incision laparoscopic surgery, and open surgical procedures are highly invasive. Using minimally invasive techniques with miniature robotic platforms potentially offers significant clinical benefits. A miniature robot platform has been designed to perform advanced laparoscopic surgery with speed, dexterity, and tissue-handling capabilities comparable to standard laparoscopic instruments working through trocars. The robotic platform includes a dexterous in vivo robot and a remote surgeon interface console. For this study, a standard laparoscope was mounted to the robot to provide vision and lighting capabilities. In addition, multiple robots could be inserted through a single incision rather than the traditional use of four or five different ports. These additional robots could provide capabilities such as tissue retraction and supplementary visualization or lighting. The efficacy of this robot has been demonstrated in a nonsurvival cholecystectomy in a porcine model. The procedure was performed through a single large transabdominal incision, with supplementary retraction being provided by standard laparoscopic tools. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using a dexterous robot platform for performing single-incision, advanced laparoscopic surgery.

Dimensional Optimization of a Two-Arm Robot for Single-Site Surgery Operations

“…Recently there has been a trend to miniaturize surgical robots and insert them inside the peritoneal cavity [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Fixed in vivo imaging robots were designed and built to assist surgeons with useful views of the surgical target [5].…”

“…With the help of motor-driven wheels, mobility was added to enable them not only in performing imaging but also exploring the abdominal cavity for tissue manipulation, dissection, cauterization, and drug delivery [6]. Traumatic traction on the organs as well as low force density of these robots motivated the development of dexterous miniature robot arms [7][8][9][10][11], whose mode of operation more closely mimics the methods used in laparoscopy.…”

“…Copyright © 2013 by ASME Several versions of two-arm miniature in vivo robots with varying degrees of freedom, different linkages and joint designs, a range of topologies, and various methods of actuation have been designed, built and tested [8][9][10][11][12] in an attempt to increase the workspace, dexterity, force and torque density and simplicity of insertion along with further miniaturization. Figure 1 shows two representative examples of robots which have evolved in complexity; per-arm architectures include R-R-P, 2R-R-P, R-R-R-R-R-R, R-R-R-R, R-2R-R-R-R, 2R-2R-R, and 2R-R-R [8][9][10][11].…”

“…Figure 1 shows two representative examples of robots which have evolved in complexity; per-arm architectures include R-R-P, 2R-R-P, R-R-R-R-R-R, R-R-R-R, R-2R-R-R-R, 2R-2R-R, and 2R-R-R [8][9][10][11]. It should be noted that speeds and forces typical of various surgical procedures, as measured by the BlueDRAGON device and described in [13], have been used as design guidelines for most of these robots.…”

“…This paper presents the dimensional synthesis of a miniature in vivo robot for LESS surgery (2R-R-R architecture) in order to extend previous work on this type of architecture [8][9][10][11]. We optimize the link lengths in the two arms to improve the compactness and kinetostatic performance of the robot while respecting workspace constraints.…”