A novel microsurgery robot mechanism with mechanical motion scalability for intraocular and reconstructive surgery

Microsurgery Robots: Applications, Design, and Development

Microsurgical techniques have been widely utilized in various surgical specialties, such as ophthalmology, neurosurgery, and otolaryngology, which require intricate and precise surgical tool manipulation on a small scale. In microsurgery, operations on delicate vessels or tissues require high standards in surgeons' skills. This exceptionally high requirement in skills leads to a steep learning curve and lengthy training before the surgeons can perform microsurgical procedures with quality outcomes. The microsurgery robot (MSR), which can improve surgeons' operation skills through various functions, has received extensive research attention in the past three decades. There have been many review papers summarizing the research on MSR for specific surgical specialties. However, an in-depth review of the relevant technologies used in MSR systems is limited in the literature. This review details the technical challenges in microsurgery, and systematically summarizes the key technologies in MSR with a developmental perspective from the basic structural mechanism design, to the perception and human-machine interaction methods, and further to the ability in achieving a certain level of autonomy. By presenting and comparing the methods and technologies in this cutting-edge research, this paper aims to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of the current state of MSR research and identify potential directions for future development in MSR.

A novel encountered-type master device with precise manipulation for robot-assisted microsurgery

BACKGROUND

The unconstrained master devices have emerged as attractive alternatives to the existing linkage-based counterparts. However, the conventional unconstrained master device's manipulation methods have several disadvantages in efficiency and precision.

METHODS

We propose an encountered-type master device based on an electromagnetic tracking solution with a prismatic joint at the tip, capable of continuous spatial manipulation with the tip supported on the surface. We performed path-following task and pointing tasks to analyze the performance of the master device.

RESULTS

The most convenient, efficient, accurate positioning and precise pointing were possible with a closed loop support condition. Moreover, the tasks under this condition were also completed with higher accuracy, and precision when applying lower motion scale factors.

CONCLUSIONS

The proposed master device allowed precise and accurate manipulation for microsurgical tasks. Compared with the conventional unconstrained master devices, the proposed master device provides the ability to perform precise work with a clutching-free motion.