Kinematic Design of a Hybrid Mechanism for Bone Reduction Surgery

Abstract

In severe fracture cases, a bone can be completely separated into two fragments. In order to guarantee a re-ossification of the bone, it is mandatory to reposition the bone fragment together. This process requires a delicate surgery called “bone reduction surgery”. The most advanced technique relies on the use of a robots to manipulate the bone fragments with higher precision and stability. The present work introduces the kinematic design of a new hybrid mechanical architecture to perform this task. It is made of one 3-PRP planar mechanism and one 3-RPS tripod mechanism. Its kinematic model is resolved while taking account the tripod parasitic motion. The workspace of this mechanism is then compared to the standard hexapod mechanism that is widely used in bone reduction surgery. It reveals that the proposed mechanism benefits from a larger workspace.