Riojas Katherine E, Hendrick Richard J, Webster Robert J
Vanderbilt Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN USA.
IEEE Robot Autom Lett. 2018 Jul;3(3):1624-1630. doi: 10.1109/LRA.2018.2800779. Epub 2018 Feb 1.
Concentric tube manipulators exhibit elastic instability in which tubes snap from one configuration to another, rapidly releasing stored strain energy. While this has long been viewed as a negative phenomenon to be avoided at all costs, in this paper we explore for the first time whether the effect can be harnessed beneficially for certain applications. Specifically, we show that the energy released in an instability can be useful for challenging, high-force surgical tasks such as driving a needle through tissue. We use concentric tube models to define the energy released during elastic instability and experimentally evaluate a two-tube concentric manipulator that can drive suture needles through tissue by harnessing elastic instability beneficially.
同心管操纵器存在弹性不稳定性，即管子会从一种构型突然转变为另一种构型，迅速释放储存的应变能。虽然长期以来这一直被视为一种应不惜一切代价避免的负面现象，但在本文中，我们首次探索这种效应是否可被有益地用于某些应用。具体而言，我们表明，不稳定性中释放的能量可用于具有挑战性的高力外科手术任务，比如将针穿过组织。我们使用同心管模型来定义弹性不稳定性过程中释放的能量，并通过实验评估一种双管同心操纵器，该操纵器能够通过有益地利用弹性不稳定性将缝合针穿过组织。
