Design and antagonistic control of a tendon-driven Minimally Invasive Surgical robotic tool

Abstract

This article is concerned with the design, implementation and control of a redundant robotic tool for Minimal Invasive Surgical (MIS) operations. The robotic tool is modular, comprised of identical stages of dual rotational Degrees of Freedom (DoF). An antagonistic tendon-driven mechanism using two DC-motors in a puller-follower configuration is used for each DoF. The inherent Coulomb friction is compensated using an adaptive scheme while varying the follower's reaction. Preliminary experimental results are provided to investigate the efficiency of the robot in typical surgical manoeuvres.