HybGrip: a synergistic hybrid gripper for enhanced robotic surgical instrument grasping

Abstract

PURPOSE: A fundamental task of a robotic scrub nurse is handling surgical instruments. Thus, a gripper capable of consistently grasping a wide variety of tools is essential. We introduce a novel gripper that combines granular jamming and pinching technologies to achieve a synergistic improvement in surgical instrument grasping. METHODS: A reliable hybrid gripper is constructed by integrating a pinching mechanism and a standard granular jamming gripper, achieving enhanced granular interlocking. For our experiments, our prototype is affixed to the end-effector of a collaborative robot. A novel grasping strategy is proposed and utilized to evaluate the robustness and performance of our prototype on 18 different surgical tools with diverse geometries. RESULTS: It is demonstrated that the integration of the pinching mechanism significantly enhances grasping performance compared with standard granular jamming grippers, with a success rate above 98%. It is shown that with the combined use of our gripper with an underlying grid, i.e., a complementary device placed beneath the instruments, robustness and performance are further enhanced. CONCLUSION: Our prototype's performance in surgical instrument grasping stands on par with, if not surpasses, that of comparable contemporary studies, ensuring its competitiveness. Our gripper proves to be robust, cost-effective, and simple, requiring no instrument-specific grasping strategies. Future research will focus on addressing the sterilizability of our prototype and assessing the viability of the introduced grid for intra-operative use.