Towards active variable stiffness manipulators for surgical robots

Variable stiffness for robotics is attracting increasing attention from researchers in the field of surgical robots. A surgical robot that can access the human colon or stomach via natural orifices must be flexible enough to pass through tortuous paths and to work in a confined space. Meanwhile, the...

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Main Authors: Le, Huu Minh, Do, Thanh Nho, Cao, Lin, Phee, Soo Jay
Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Language:English
Published: 2020
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/137868
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1378682023-03-04T17:07:34Z Towards active variable stiffness manipulators for surgical robots Le, Huu Minh Do, Thanh Nho Cao, Lin Phee, Soo Jay School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) Robotics Research Centre Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Robots Surgical Robot Variable Stiffness Variable stiffness for robotics is attracting increasing attention from researchers in the field of surgical robots. A surgical robot that can access the human colon or stomach via natural orifices must be flexible enough to pass through tortuous paths and to work in a confined space. Meanwhile, the robot must also be stiff enough to ensure pushability and to hold high payloads during the surgery. Thus, surgical robots with variable stiffness are desirable. This paper presents a new design concept for variable stiffness manipulators using a thermoplastic material - Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) - and a flexible stainless steel sheath as a heating solution. The stiffness of PET can be flexibly adjusted through temperature. Experiments and validations were carried out at different conditions. The results showed that our proposed design is at least as flexible as a typical commercial endoscope when flexibility is desired and meanwhile at least 9 times stiffer than the endoscope when stiffness is desired (Flexural modulus was compared). A tendon-driven manipulator based on the proposed concept was also developed. Validation tests showed that the manipulator in compliant mode can be significantly bent through cable actuation, and the manipulator in stiff mode is able to maintain its shape against considerably large loads. NRF (Natl Research Foundation, S’pore) Accepted version 2020-04-17T01:41:30Z 2020-04-17T01:41:30Z 2017 Conference Paper Le, H. M., Do, T. N., Cao, L., & Phee, S. J. (2017). Towards active variable stiffness manipulators for surgical robots. Proceedings of 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 1766-1771. doi:10.1109/ICRA.2017.7989209 9781509046331 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/137868 10.1109/ICRA.2017.7989209 2-s2.0-85028023403 1766 1771 en © 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. The published version is available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA.2017.7989209 application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Robots
Surgical Robot
Variable Stiffness
spellingShingle Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Robots
Surgical Robot
Variable Stiffness
Le, Huu Minh
Do, Thanh Nho
Cao, Lin
Phee, Soo Jay
Towards active variable stiffness manipulators for surgical robots
description Variable stiffness for robotics is attracting increasing attention from researchers in the field of surgical robots. A surgical robot that can access the human colon or stomach via natural orifices must be flexible enough to pass through tortuous paths and to work in a confined space. Meanwhile, the robot must also be stiff enough to ensure pushability and to hold high payloads during the surgery. Thus, surgical robots with variable stiffness are desirable. This paper presents a new design concept for variable stiffness manipulators using a thermoplastic material - Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) - and a flexible stainless steel sheath as a heating solution. The stiffness of PET can be flexibly adjusted through temperature. Experiments and validations were carried out at different conditions. The results showed that our proposed design is at least as flexible as a typical commercial endoscope when flexibility is desired and meanwhile at least 9 times stiffer than the endoscope when stiffness is desired (Flexural modulus was compared). A tendon-driven manipulator based on the proposed concept was also developed. Validation tests showed that the manipulator in compliant mode can be significantly bent through cable actuation, and the manipulator in stiff mode is able to maintain its shape against considerably large loads.
author2 School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
author_facet School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Le, Huu Minh
Do, Thanh Nho
Cao, Lin
Phee, Soo Jay
format Conference or Workshop Item
author Le, Huu Minh
Do, Thanh Nho
Cao, Lin
Phee, Soo Jay
author_sort Le, Huu Minh
title Towards active variable stiffness manipulators for surgical robots
title_short Towards active variable stiffness manipulators for surgical robots
title_full Towards active variable stiffness manipulators for surgical robots
title_fullStr Towards active variable stiffness manipulators for surgical robots
title_full_unstemmed Towards active variable stiffness manipulators for surgical robots
title_sort towards active variable stiffness manipulators for surgical robots
publishDate 2020
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/137868
_version_ 1759855517993271296