Trans-abdominal Active Magnetic Linkage for robotic surgery: Concept definition and model assessment

Abstract

The novel concept of Trans-abdominal Active Magnetic Linkage for laparoendoscopic single site surgery has the potential to enable the deployment of a bimanual robotic platform trough a single laparoscopic incision. The main advantage of this approach consists in shifting the actuators outside the body of the patient, while transmitting a controlled robotic motion by magnetic field across the abdomen without the need for dedicated incisions. An actuation mechanism based on this approach can be comprised of multiple anchoring and actuation units, mixed depending upon the specific needs. A static model providing anchoring and actuation forces and torques available at the internal side of the magnetic link was developed to provide a tool to navigate among the many possibilities of such an open ended design approach. The model was assessed through bench top experiments, showing a maximum relative error of 4% on force predictions. An example of a single degree of freedom manipulator actuated with the proposed concept and compatible with a 12-mm access port is able to provide an anchoring force of 3.82 N and an actuation force of 2.95 N.I.

Disposable Fluidic Actuators for Miniature In-Vivo Surgical Robotics

“…Surgical robotics is advancing from externally actuated systems such as the da Vinci V R Surgical System [1] to miniature in-vivo robotics where the entire robot is inserted into the patient's body [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. However, with miniaturization of surgical robots, there comes a trade-off between the size of the robot and its capability [15].…”

“…However, with miniaturization of surgical robots, there comes a trade-off between the size of the robot and its capability [15]. Miniature electric motors have been used in many in-vivo robots [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] as the primary means of actuation. Slow actuation, low load capacity, sterilization difficulty, leaking electricity and transferring produced heat to tissues, and high cost are among the key limitations of the use of electric motors in in-vivo applications [15][16][17].…”

“…Lehman et al [5,17] built a tethered bimanual robot for natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES), which is inserted through the mouth, enters the peritoneal cavity though the esophagus and an internal incision in the stomach, and attaches magnetically to the abdominal wall. In a similar work, Di Natali et al [8] designed and built a magnetically actuated surgical platform for SILS. Recent development has focused on design of snakelike robots for NOTES.…”

Closed-Loop Control of Local Magnetic Actuation for Robotic Surgical Instruments

“…In [1], the authors introduced the concept of Local Magnetic Actuation (LMA), where mechanical power is transferred across the abdominal wall by magnetic coupling to drive a degree of freedom (DoF) of a laparoscopic robot. This approach prevents the need for embedded actuators and wired connections.…”

“…While magnetic anchoring was discussed in [1] and the theoretical feasibility of driving a laparoscopic tool was shown in [2] via a static analysis, in this paper we focus on dynamic modeling and closed-loop control of a single LMA-actuated DoF. In addition, we investigate the amount of mechanical power that can be transferred across the abdominal wall at different intermagnetic distances, and we compare the results with EM motors having a size similar to the internal driven magnet.…”