Key Lab for Mechanism Theory and Equipment Design of Ministry of Education, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.
Int J Med Robot. 2017 Dec;13(4). doi: 10.1002/rcs.1797. Epub 2017 Feb 20.
Most of the existing robotic platforms for LESS have workspace and load capacity weaknesses, because of the limitation of one single incision. We have developed a LESS manual operating platform of which the stiffness of the insertion tube is controllable.
The system included two dexterous tool manipulators, a stereo-vision module and a variable stiffness insertion tube (VSIT), which was designed using phase-change material (mixed indium, gallium and stannum). Experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of the VSIT were set up. Peg transfer tasks and trajectory tracking tasks were conducted to assess the initial performance of the overall system.
The experimental results for stiffness characteristic suggested that the rigidity of the VSIT with a straight-forward pose was considerably increased by about four times in the rigid mode. Peg transfer tasks and trajectory tracking tasks were performed successfully with an average time of 97 s and 52 s, respectively.
The experimental results for stiffness characteristic showed that the manual operating platform had great promise for solving large workspace, high manipulation force and stability problems in LESS. The tool manipulators had the ability to achieve basic operations.
大多数现有的 LESS 机器人平台由于单个切口的限制，存在工作空间和负载能力的弱点。我们开发了一种 LESS 手动操作平台，其插入管的刚度是可控的。
该系统包括两个灵巧的工具操作器、一个立体视觉模块和一个可变刚度插入管（VSIT），它是使用相变材料（混合铟、镓和锡）设计的。设置了评估 VSIT 有效性的实验。进行了销转移任务和轨迹跟踪任务，以评估整个系统的初始性能。
刚度特性的实验结果表明，在刚性模式下，笔直姿势的 VSIT 的刚性大大增加了约四倍。成功完成了销转移任务和轨迹跟踪任务，平均时间分别为 97 秒和 52 秒。
刚度特性的实验结果表明，手动操作平台在解决 LESS 中的大工作空间、高操纵力和稳定性问题方面具有很大的潜力。工具操作器具有实现基本操作的能力。
