A wrist for needle-sized surgical robots
Peter A. York, Philip J. Swaney, Hunter B. Gilbert, Robert J. Webster
Abstract
The needle-sized surgical tools used in arthroscopy, otolaryngology, and other surgical fields could become even more valuable to surgeons if endowed with the ability to navigate around sharp corners to manipulate or visualize tissue. We present a needle-sized wrist design that grants this ability. It can be easily interfaced with manual tools or concentric tube robots and is straightforward and inexpensive to manufacture. The wrist consists of a nitinol tube with several asymmetric cutouts, actuated by a tendon. Perhaps counter-intuitively, within this seemingly simple design concept, design optimization is challenging due to the number of parameters available and nonlinearities in material properties. In this paper, we examine a subset of possible geometries and derive kinematic and static models. Experimental results with a 1.16 mm diameter prototype validate the models. Lastly, we provide a discussion summarizing the lessons learned in our early experience designing and fabricating wrists of this type.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{icra2015_awristforneedles,
title = {A wrist for needle-sized surgical robots},
author = {Peter A. York and Philip J. Swaney and Hunter B. Gilbert and Robert J. Webster},
booktitle = {ICRA 2015},
year = {2015}
}