Design and Control of a Robotic Platform for Dexterous Minimally Invasive Surgical Applications

In this article, a novel robotic platform for robotic assisted minimally invasive surgical operations is presented. The platform consists of a 3 Degree-of-Freedom (DoF) passive tool holder and a 12 DoF robotic probe for dexterous motion upon insertion. The developed prototype is presented in terms of its mechatronic and kinematic structure. Regarding actuation, a hybrid solution comprising of servo-motors for the extraoperative part of the robot and shape-memory-alloy actuators for the intraoperative probe is adopted. The latter are evaluated in terms of establishing an efficient antagonistic tendon-driven actuation control scheme. The robotic platform is in-vitro evaluated under a human-in-the-loop control scheme using a teleoperation device. Additionally, custom developed software for physicians’ training and pre-operative planning with the robot is presented.