The MUSHA underactuated hand for robot‐aided minimally invasive surgery

Abstract

BackgroundKeyhole surgery is characterized by loss of dexterity of surgeon's movements because of the limited workspace, nonintuitive motor skills of the surgical systems, and loss of tactile sensation that may lead to tissue damage and bad execution of the tasks.MethodsIn this paper, a three‐fingered underactuated miniature tool for robot‐aided laparoscopic surgery is presented. The design is conceived to realize a closed‐hand configuration allowing the insertion of the tool into the abdominal cavity through the trocar in one step and to reach different grasping as well as pushing/holding configurations once in the cavity.ResultsAiming to replicate human hand dexterity and versatility, different solutions for the kinematic structure of the hand are analyzed using quality indices to evaluate the manipulability and stability of the grasp. Furthermore, a first prototype of fingertip force sensor based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) technology has been realized and tested. The design choices of the prototype are described and discussed with the aid of experiments.ConclusionsThe whole concept and the need for such anthropomorphic tool are discussed with surgeons to highlight constraints and potentials in surgical tasks. The feedback by expert surgeons is used to provide specifications and improvements to the kinematics and mechanical design. The investigations of different designs allow identifying the optimal solution to improve grasping and manipulation capabilities. The tests on FBG sensors led to the conclusion that this technology guarantees good performance and can be a good solution for applications in surgical robotics.

Accelerating Surgical Robotics Research: A Review of 10 Years With the da Vinci Research Kit

“…In this category, publications include works focusing on the design and integration of new tools compatible with the dVRK: new surgical instruments [108]- [112], [115], [116], [123], [129], [130], [160], [194], [206], [207], [214], [249], [250], [252], and new sensing systems [73], [74], [180], [198], [248]. New flexible endoscopes and vision devices have also recently been proposed in [244] and [245].…”

Haptics in Teleoperated Medical Interventions: Force Measurement, Haptic Interfaces and Their Influence on User's Performance

“…However, this technology has not been tested for distal sensing in tool-tissue interaction. In another attempt, an FBG-based force sensor is introduced to measure interaction forces on the three fingers of an underactuated surgical gripper [49]. The measurement error is less than 5% compared to an ATI sensor.…”

Portable dVRK: an augmented V-REP simulator of the da Vinci Research Kit

“…14, on the left). MH is a tree fingered under-actuated and miniaturized hand specifically designed for robotic laparoscopic surgery [25]. The hand aims at completely changing the surgical work-flow in MIRS by introducing advanced manipulation and sensing capabilities comparable to those of the human hand.…”