Mechanical manipulator for intuitive control of endoscopic instruments with seven degrees of freedom

Abstract

During minimally invasive surgery (MIS), surgeons operate through small holes in the patient's body and the movements of the instruments' handles about the incision are scaled and mirrored. Complex tasks like suturing are very demanding due to disturbed hand-eye coordination and instruments with limited degrees of freedom (DOFs). Robotic systems enhance surgical dexterity by providing up to 7 DOFs. This allows the surgeon to operate with more intuitive manipulation of the instruments. Robotic systems, however, are very bulky, expensive and do not provide any force feedback. A relatively simple mechanical manipulator for MIS is developed as an alternative to robotic systems avoiding these drawbacks.