Design of a 6 DOF Master Manipulator Arm with Enhanced Gravity Compensation and Compliant Grasping for Robotic Surgery

Technology Category/Market

Technology: 6 DOF Master arm of a tele-operated robotic system;

Industry: Medical Surgical Instruments;

Application: Orthopedics, Urology, Gynecology, Neurology, other;

Market: The global surgical robot market is projected to grow $12.73B by 2027 at a CAGR of 17.5% during the period (2022 -2027).

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Problem Statement

In the Robotics surgeries, master arms used as input devices which help to capture the hand movement of an operator in space.
In the prior design, there was at least 2 DOF which can move in a plane with an additional out of plane DOF.
Said prior art design suffers from increased inertia including other associated issues.
Further Parallel linkage-based design overcomes some of the balancing problems but has limited workspace compared to a serial linkage-based design.

Technology

Present invention describes the design of a master arm which serves as an input device for a tele-operated robotic system.
The master arm has 6 DOF (Degrees of Freedom) with strategically distributed mass which inherently provides partial self-balance and requires minimal number of counter masses for gravity compensation.
The proposed design includes a wrist decoupled design.

Key Features/Value Proposition

Technical Perspective:

The master arm design requires minimal number of counter masses for gravity compensation.

Proposed design offers reduced complexity, weight & backlash free operation with reduced joint friction.
Said design uses a compliant mechanism –based grasper that uses flexures, & further uses a circular profile with a follower operates in linear motion.
Said mechanism is immune to backlash, lubrication free and does not generate wear debris.