Design a flexible surgical instrument for robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery

Abstract

With the advent of robot technic, robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery has improved the precision of surgery. The performance of the instrument has a large influence on the surgery quality. Researchers have developed a variety of surgical instruments for minimally invasive surgery in clinical applications. However, very few of these are flexible surgical instrument products. In this paper, we designed a flexible surgical instrument with a flexible tube, which can rely on its own bent, flexible structure within the patient's body posture adjustment to achieve surgical instruments. Additionally, the instrument has the same diameter as non-flexible surgical instruments. We also derive analytical kinematics equations for the instrument. Finally, a prototype is built and its functions are confirmed by a test.