Antonelli Michele Gabrio, Beomonte Zobel Pierluigi, Durante Francesco, Gaj Fabio
Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics, University of L'Aquila, Italy.
Policlinico Umberto I - Dipartimento di Chirurgia Generale e Trapianti d'Organo, Istituto 'Paride Stefanini', Università La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
Int J Med Robot. 2017 Sep;13(3). doi: 10.1002/rcs.1796. Epub 2017 Jan 12.
In natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) the peritoneal cavity is reached through natural orifices (mouth, rectus and transvaginal duct), by means of little cuttings in the walls of hollow organs. Due to narrow spaces, NOTES needs robotic systems to assure operation/movement precision and patient safety. Variable stiffness actuation (VSA) assures both requirements.
The authors developed a grasper for NOTES, provided with VSA, to use as an end-effector for snail robot devices. The present paper deals with basic concepts of VSA and describes the design and architecture of the grasper. Characterization and functional experiments were performed and results analysed.
A finite element model developed for the actuator design was validated, performance grasper characteristic curves were obtained, VSA was validated, and the gripping capability of several objects was assessed.
The grasper satisfies technical design specifications. On the basis of the results obtained, a control system can be developed to test grasper in a simulated surgery environment.
在经自然腔道内镜手术（NOTES）中，通过在中空器官壁上进行微小切口，经自然腔道（口腔、直肠和经阴道管道）进入腹腔。由于空间狭窄，NOTES需要机器人系统来确保操作/运动精度和患者安全。可变刚度驱动（VSA）可满足这两个要求。
作者开发了一种用于NOTES的配备VSA的抓持器，用作蜗牛机器人设备的末端执行器。本文论述了VSA的基本概念，并描述了抓持器的设计和结构。进行了特性和功能实验并分析了结果。
为执行器设计开发的有限元模型得到验证，获得了抓持器性能特性曲线，VSA得到验证，并评估了对多个物体的抓握能力。
该抓持器满足技术设计规格。基于所获得的结果，可开发一个控制系统，以便在模拟手术环境中测试抓持器。
