A New Robot for Minimally Invasive Surgery

Abstract

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) challenges the surgeon’s skills due to his separation from the operation area which can be reached with long instruments only. To overcome the drawbacks of manual MIS minimally invasive robotic surgery (MIRS) plays an important role. This paper takes a close look at the requirements on a MIRS system and describes the new DLR robot for MIS. This includes a discussion of the robotic arm, of appropriate control laws, as well as of actuated and sensorized instruments.