Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research (IC&SR) , IIT Madras

A Minimally Invasive Surgical Tool for Robotic Surgery with Disengaged Degrees of Freedom

Technology Category/Market

Category– Medical and Surgical Devices

Applications – Biomedical and surgical systems, Robotics, Manufacturing

Industry – Healthcare, Manufacturing 

Market -The global surgical robots market in terms of revenue was estimated to be worth $8.5 billion in 2022 and is poised to reach $18.4 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 16.6% from 2022 to 2027.

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Problem Statement

  • Generally Robotic Surgical tools have 4 DOF compared to 2 DOF in manual laparoscopic surgery where extra DOF provides surgeons increased dexterity and reduced fatigue but  mechanical design turns complicated due to the additional DOFs.
  • Hence, there is need to address the issue of coupled DOF in robotic surgical tools to simplify control strategies and enhance the effectiveness of these advanced medical instruments

Technology

The present invention discloses a minimally invasive surgical tool for robotic surgery with disengaged Degrees of Freedom (DOF) consists of:

  • A hollow shaft
  • Four driving motors with integrated encoders at the base
  • A tool tip

Further, the said tool tip comprises:

  • A pair of graspers
  • A pair of pulleys
  • Four pairs of tethers for the 4 DOF wound over cylinders
  • Tether guides to guide the ropes as the tool’s grasper pitches
  1. The said tethers are attached to the motors, with three pairs of tethers passing through the hollow shaft to actuate the graspers at the tool’s end.
  2. Further the tether guides ensures that the midplane of the grasper pulley aligns with the tether’s symmetry line to minimize wire fraying.
  3. The tether is 0.7 mm in diameter with a minimum breaking strength of 120N
  4. Tether guides helps to guide the rope as the tool’s grasper pitches, where tether wraps over these guide and slides past them when actuated.
  5. The tethers are characteristically crimped at the position of the grasper ensuring a positive drive without slippage.
  6. Further, provides an alternate proposal for routing the tethers without using a tether diverting pin, where circular guides are offset by a distance equal to the distance between the mid-planes of the grasper pulleys ensures law of belting

Key Features/Value Proposition

Technical Perspective:

  • The present invention discloses an optical device for detecting a contaminant or a pollutant layer on moving targets
  • By the combined effect of a photometric device, an optical fiber, and a translation stage, the optical emissions originating from the plasma induced by laser action on a revolving target are encompassed.
  • Further, strategically positioning the optical fiber close to the focal plane, the measurement of pollutant layers at different stand-off distances is attainable.
  • Device allows coaxial laser ablation and remote detection

User Perspective:

  • The present invention can be utilized for detecting a contaminant layer on wind turbine blades with considerable heights, ranging from tens to hundreds of meters
  • Can perform condition monitoring in structures such as monuments, bridge structues, high voltage installations, nuclear power plants etc.
Questions about this Technology?

Contact for Licensing

Research Lab

Prof. ASOKAN T

Department of Engineering Design

Intellectual Property

  • IITM IDF Ref. 1235
  • IN390007-Granted

Technology Readiness Level

TRL- 4

Technology Validated in the lab

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