Abstract
Due to its monolithic structure and high dexterity, the compliant mechanism becomes an emerging solution to miniaturize surgical forceps for minimally invasive procedures. However, it is complicated and inefficient to use traditional rigid-link-based kinematic method to synthesize compliant forceps. In this paper, we present a topology-optimization-based method to automatically synthesize compliant forceps for robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RMIS). The basic geometry modeling tool and the automatic synthesis algorithm were both implemented in Matlab. Several synthesis examples were presented to show the performance of the proposed method. The realized forceps and a continuum manipulator have been constructed and 3D-printed, which demonstrated the application of the automatic synthesis method in RMIS.
Zusammenfassung
Aufgrund der monolithischen Struktur und der hohen Flexibilität wird der nachgiebige Mechanismus häufig verwendet, um die chirurgischen Zangen für das minimal-invasive Verfahren zu miniaturisieren. Es ist jedoch kompliziert und ineffizient, mit der traditionellen Starrkörper-Gelenk-basierten kinematischen Methode die nachgiebigen Zangen zu synthetisieren. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir eine Topologieoptimierung-basierte Methode vor, um die nachgiebigen Zangen für die robotergestützte minimal-invasive Chirurgie (RMIC) automatisch zu synthetisieren. Das Werkzeug für die Geometriemodellierung und der Algorithmus für die automatische Synthese wurden beide in Matlab implementiert. Einige Synthesebeispiele wurden vorgestellt, um die Leistungsfähigkeit der vorgeschlagenen Methode zu zeigen. Die realisierten Zangen sowie ein Kontinuumsmanipulator wurden konstruiert und 3D-gedruckt, die die Anwendung der automatischen Synthesemethode in RMIS demonstrierten.
About the authors
Yilun Sun received his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 2017. He is a research assistant at the Institute of Micro Technology and Medical Device Technology (MiMed). His research interests include automatic design using structural optimization techniques, FEM-based modeling and bio-inspired mechanisms for medical applications.
Lingji Xu received her Bachelor’s degree (2017) in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany. During her studies towards her Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering at TUM, she accomplished her term thesis at the Institute of Micro Technology and Medical Device Technology at TUM, Germany with the topic experimental validation of structural optimization methods for 3D-printed parts.
Dingzhi Zhang received his Bachelor’s degree (2017) in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany. During his studies towards his Master’s degree in Medical Technology and Engineering at TUM, he stayed at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, for an exchange study in Medical Informatics. He is currently working on his master’s thesis at the Institute of Micro Technology and Medical Device Technology at TUM, Germany. His research interests include the analysis and optimization of compliant mechanisms for medical applications.
Tim C. Lueth received the M. Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, in 1989, and the Ph. D. degree in robotics from the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1993. Since 2007, he has been a Professor (status only) with the Department of Medical Imaging (Chair Dr. Walter Kucharczyk), University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. He is currently a Professor, the Chair, and the Director of the Institute of Micro Technology and Medical Device Technology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany. His current research interests include mechatronic devices, bionic robotics, and special robotics. He is also a Founder Board Member of the German Society for Robotics. He received fellowships of the Alexander-von Humboldt Foundation and the Japanese Science and Technology Agency.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank Yannick Krieger and Simon Schiele for their help in printing the prototypes.
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