Development of wire-driven laparoscopic surgical robotic system, "MU-LapaRobot"

This paper describes the design and development of a new wire-driven laparoscopic surgical robotic system. The aim of our design is to develop a surgical robotic system to work with traditional surgical tools to reduce the surgeon's learning curve in using our robotic system. The overall design is strictly based on surgical requirements which our specific workspace analysis also plays an important role. The motion of laparoscopic tool creates a unique constraint which is a remote-fulcrum point away from the robot at the small incision on abdominal wall. Our robot consists of 3 sections; 1) 2-link passive planar manipulator with level adjuster for locating the fulcrum point in 3D-space, 2) 2-DOF distant-parallel mechanical linkage for generating a cone-shape workspace, and 3) tool's quick release for switching tool during the surgery. Our current study and mechanical design is based on our first design of "A Passive Laparoscopic Tool Holder with Electromagnetic Brake System" in full motion constraint. The new design is a wire-driven and motorized system. The design, implementation, experiment and results are discussed here. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop an interchangeable surgical robots which capable of human-robot collaboration and tele-operation.