Design of a New 4-DOF Haptic Master Featuring Magnetorheological Fluid

摘要

This work presents a novel 4-degree-of-freedom (4-DOF) haptic master using magnetorheological (MR) fluid which is applicable to a robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RMIS) system. By using MR fluid, the proposed haptic device can easily generate bidirectional repulsive torque along the directions of the required motions. The proposed master consists of two actuators: an MR bidirectional clutch associated with a planetary gear system and an MR clutch with a bevel gear system. After demonstrating the configuration, the torque models of MR actuators are mathematically derived based on the field-dependent Bingham model. An optimal design that accounts for spatial-limitation and the desired torque constraint is then undertaken. An optimization procedure based on finite element analysis is proposed to determine optimal geometric dimensions. Based on the design procedure, MR haptic master with the optimal parameters has been manufactured. In order to demonstrate the practical feasibility of the proposed haptic master, the field-dependent generating repulsive force is measured. In addition, a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is empirically implemented to accomplish the desired torque trajectories. It has been shown that the proposed haptic master can track the desired torque trajectory without a significant error.