Flexible Semi-Automatic Arm Design for Minimally Invasive Surgery

This paper proposes the design of a flexible multisensor surgical manipulator to be used in Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS). The proposed system constitutes intrinsically actuated flexible arm, drive mechanism, and control system. Flexibility is achieved by connecting and actuating varying length discrete rigid links with micromotor equipped with rotary encoder. Comprehensive design details are presented on the basis of choice of micromotor, torque requirement, and degree of freedom achievement. The design was tested with dynamic simulation. The proposed system provides infrastructure for semi-automatic control using multivariable control theory to help the surgeon to follow a predetermined surgical path. Furthermore, it accounts for the limitations of existing MIS manipulators. It is believed that the result of the paper will have practical impacts on making flexible surgical arms more accurate and user friendly than its existing counterparts.