New remote centre of motion mechanism for robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery

Abstract

BackgroundRobot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RMIS) is promising for improving surgical accuracy and dexterity. As the end effector of the robotic arm, the remote centre of motion mechanism is one of the requisite terms for guaranteeing patient safety. The existing remote centre of motion mechanisms are complex and large in volume, as well as high assembly requirement and unsatisfactory precise. This paper aimed to present a new remote centre of motion mechanism for solving these problems.MethodsA new mechanism based on the RMIS requirements is proposed for holding the laparoscope and generating a remote centre of motion for the laparoscope. The mechanism kinematics is then analysed from the perspective of the structural function, and its inverse kinematics is determined with a small number of calculations. Finally, the position deviation of the laparoscope rotational point is chosen as the index to evaluate the mechanism performance. The experiments are performed to test the deviation.ResultsThe position deviations of the laparoscope rotational point do not exceed 2 mm, which is lower than that of the existing remote centre of motion mechanism. The 2 mm positioning error of the laparoscope won’t affect surgeon observation of the surgical field, and the pressure caused by the positioning error was acceptable for the skin elasticity. The proposed mechanism meets the RMIS requirement.ConclusionsThe proposed mechanism can achieve the remote centre of motion for the laparoscope. Its simple and compact structure is beneficial to avoid the collision of robotic arms, and it can be applied on other robots for providing the instrument necessary motion in minimally invasive surgery.

Removal of pediatric stage IV neuroblastoma by robot-assisted laparoscopy: A case report and literature review

“…The application of laparoscopy in NB resection is very extensively reported in the literature; however, if the NB is closely associated with important blood vessels, the use of a laparoscope in NB resection is still challenging and has limitations. Robotic surgery is a minimally invasive surgery with greater convenience and effectiveness[24]. Robot-assisted laparoscopic resection of retroperitoneal NB is rarely reported[1].…”

Solving the Time-Varying Inverse Kinematics Problem for the Da Vinci Surgical Robot

“…where R and P are the orientation and position of the slave manipulator endpoint, respectively. Substituting Equation (1) Figure 2 shows the six DOFs of the active arm in the slave manipulator, namely five rotating joints: q 1 , q 2 , q 4 , q 5 , q 6 , and a translational joint: q 3 .…”

“…Then the dimensions of matrix A and matrix B are both 4 × 4. Each element in matrix A is a function containing x 1 , x 2 , and x 3 , while the elements in matrix B are functions containing x 4 , x 5 , and x 6 . In addition, corresponding elements in matrix A and matrix B are equal, i.e., Aij = Bij.…”

“…(1) contain mechanical structures to generate Remote Center of Motion [5] (RCM, a fixed point on the active arm, there are two methods to generate RCM based motion: (a) virtual RCM, (b) physically constrained RCM [6]), and the structure can be simplified; (2) do not satisfy the Pieper principle. 2 of 17 At present, the main methods of robotic inverse kinematics include the analytic method and the numerical method.…”

A World-First Surgical Instrument for Minimally Invasive Robotically-Enabled Transplantation of Heart Patches for Myocardial Regeneration: A Brief Research Report

“…Since the first reports of robotic minimally invasive cardiac surgery (1), there has been increasing attention given to the role of minimally invasive robotics in cardiothoracic surgery (2)(3)(4)(5)(6). Meanwhile, tissue engineers have been making gains toward regenerating the myocardium (7)(8)(9).…”