Modular design of versatile surgical mini-robots

Abstract

Surgical robots have been introduced in the field of Computer Assisted Surgery (CAS) to assist the surgeon by providing an accurate link between the computer-based plan and the exact (a) positioning or (b) dynamic path control of an instrument on the operating site respectively. Whereas initial systems mostly have been based on an active supervisory control scheme of industrial robots with large universal workspaces, later on specialized miniaturized kinematics have been proposed, with restricted workspaces adapted to specific applications in order to ease handling and provide inherent safety properties. However, this specialization resulted in even narrower fields of application, low quantities and higher costs. Modularization seems to be a key factor to combine the benefits of both approaches. In this paper two modular robotic solutions, validated in the context of their purpose, are analysed regarding their modular design. Based on this, the potential of modularity for instrument guiding tasks in surgery is discussed.