A High-Precision Robotic System Design for Microsurgical Applications

Abstract

The introduction of robotic systems in medical surgery has achieved the goal of decreasing procedures’ invasiveness, positively impacting the patient’s prognosis by reducing the incision size, surgical infections, and hospitalization time. Nowadays, robotic surgery is used as an integral part of urology, gynecology, abdominal, and cardiac interventions. Despite its adoption in several surgical specialties, robotic technology remains limited in the area of microsurgery. In this paper, we present the development of a robotic system providing sub-millimeter motion resolution for the potential manipulation of fine structures. The design is based on linear delta robotic geometry. The motion, resolution, and repeatability of the developed system were simulated, followed by proof-of-concept experimental testing. The developed system achieved a motion resolution of 3.37 ± 0.17 µm in both the X- and Y-axes and 1.32 ± 0.2 µm in the Z-axis. We evaluated the system navigation, setting a zigzag trajectory with dimensions below those found in blood vessels (300 to 800 µm), and found that the system is capable of achieving a maximum resolution of 3.06 ± 0.03 µm. These results demonstrate the potential application of the here-presented robotic system for its use in microsurgical applications such as neurosurgery, plastic, and breast cancer surgeries.