A novel remote center of motion mechanism for the force‐reflective master robot of haptic tele‐surgery systems

Abstract

BACKGROUND: An effective master robot for haptic tele-surgery applications needs to provide a solution for the inversed movements of the surgical tool, in addition to sufficient workspace and manipulability, with minimal moving inertia. METHOD: A novel 4 + 1-DOF mechanism was proposed, based on a triple parallelogram linkage, which provided a Remote Center of Motion (RCM) at the back of the user's hand. The kinematics of the robot was analyzed and a prototype was fabricated and evaluated by experimental tests. RESULTS: With a RCM at the back of the user's hand the actuators far from the end effector, the robot could produce the sensation of hand-inside surgery with minimal moving inertia. The target workspace was achieved with an acceptable manipulability. The trajectory tracking experiments revealed small errors, due to backlash at the joints. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed mechanism meets the basic requirements of an effective master robot for haptic tele-surgery applications.