Prototype Design of Robotic Surgical Instrument for Minimally Invasive Robot Surgery

Abstract

This paper presents the prototype design of the robotic surgical instrument for minimally invasive surgery robot. For high reliability and stiffness characteristics of the instrument, it has been designed on the basis of 3-DOF (degrees of freedom) parallel robot mechanism with three identical PSR (Prismatic-Spherical-Revolute)- serial chains. Further, for the forceps grasp and axial rotational motions, it has one additional center leg. With this mechanical structure, 4-DOF motions of forceps, i.e., forceps grasp motion, 2-DOF wrist orientation, and 1-DOF axial rotation, are possible. Further, the capability of pure axial rotation of the proposed instrument forceps may enable more dexterous surgery compared to the other surgical instruments. Detailed description of the proposed me chanism is given and performance of the prototype compared to the other robotic instruments are discussed in this paper.