Design and analyses of tendon-driven continuum robots for minimally invasive surgery

Abstract

Continuum robots have great potential to be used for many special applications due to their flexible kinematic structure. The perspective area of utilization is minimally invasive surgery (MIS). One of the main actuation principle of continuum robots is tendon actuation. The paper introduces the developed MISBOT robot for the purposes of MIS monitoring. The paper also presents mechanical design of universal actuation subsystem for tendon-driven continuum robots based on three segmental tendon system. The paper investigates three different mechanical structures of continuum robots from the view of their basic motion properties. The results of the experimental analyses show the better results for continuum robot with elastic structure in comparison with rigid structures, especially from the view of motion repeatability.