Design of a Quadramanual Robot for Single-Nostril Skull Base Surgery

Abstract

Innovations in the field of continuum robotics are enabling increasingly thin and dexterous slave robots in surgical telema-nipulation systems. Actuation of these robots is a challenge, because many degrees of freedom must be controlled simulta-neously in a compact and unobtrusive package in the operat-ing room. While significant progress in designing these actua-tion units has been made for both larger, non-medical contin-uum robots, and for certain types of surgical continuum robots, the design of clinically-relevant actuation units for concentric tube robots is a comparatively understudied area of research. To address this, in this paper we present the design of a robot intended to deliver four concentric tube manipulators simulta-neously through a single nostril. We present the considerations that motivated the design and the prototype we have constructed to meet these needs.