A Novel Microsurgical Robot with Double-Parallelogram RCM Mechanism and Back-Driven Instrument Translation

Abstract

With the increasing demand for high-accuracy maneuvers in robot-assisted minimal invasive surgery (MIS), both the kinematic structure and the assembly errors of the microsurgical robot need to be improved. Traditionally, the insertion and retraction motion of the surgical tool is driven by a linear actuator mounted on the end-effector. However, this causes additional mass, inertia, and vibration. To mitigate this problem, a novel microsurgical robot with back-driven instrument translation is developed. Parameter optimization that considers the assembly errors of the double-parallelogram RCM mechanism is performed in the robot's mechanism design. A prototype of the design is fabricated and implemented. The experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed new mechanism.