Abstract
To reduce the surgical trauma to the patient, minimally invasive surgery is gaining considerable importance since the eighties. More recently, robot assisted minimally invasive surgery was introduced to enhance the surgeon’s performance in these procedures. This resulted in an intensive research on the design, fabrication and control of surgical robots over the last decades. A new development in the field of surgical tool manipulators is presented in this article: a flexible manipulator with distributed degrees of freedom powered by microhydraulic actuators. The tool consists of successive flexible segments, each with two bending degrees of freedom. To actuate these compliant segments, dedicated fluidic actuators are incorporated, together with compact hydraulic valves which control the actuator motion. Especially the development of microvalves for this application was challenging, and are the main focus of this paper. The valves distribute the hydraulic power from one common high pressure supply to a series of artificial muscle actuators. Tests show that the angular stroke of the each segment of this medical instrument is 90°.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
G.H. Ballantyne, Robotic surgery, telerobotic surgery, telepresence, and telementoring - Review of early clinical results. Surg. Endoscop. Interv. Techniques 16(10), 1389–402 (2002)
D.G. Caldwell, G.A. Medranocerda, M.J. Goodwin, Braided pneumatic actuator control of a multi-jointed manipulator, 1993 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, pp. 423–428
A. De Greef, P. Lambert, A. Delchambre, Prec. Engineer. J. Int. Soci. Prec. Engineer. Nanotech 33, 311 (2009)
M. De Volder, D. Reynaerts, Development of a hybrid ferrofluid seal technology for miniature pneumatic and hydraulic actuators. Sens. Actuat. A. Phys. 152, 234–40 (2009)
M. De Volder, D. Reynaerts, Pneumatic and hydraulic actuators: a review. J. Micromech. Microeng. 20(4), 043001 (2010)
M. De Volder, J. Coosemans, R. Puers, D. Reynaerts, Characterisation and control of a pneumatic microactuator with an integrated inductive position sensor. Sens. Actuat. A. Phys. 141, 192–200 (2008)
M. De Volder, F. Ceyssens, D. Reynaerts, R. Puers, J. Microelectro. Syst. 18, 1100 (2009)
M. De Volder, A. Moers, D. Reynaerts, Fabrication and control of miniature McKibben actuators. Sens. Actuat. A. Phys. 166(1), 111–6 (2011)
M. Doumit, A. Fahim, M. Munro, Analytical modeling and experimental validation of the braided pneumatic muscle. IEEE Trans. Robot. 25, 1282–91 (2009)
R. Gaylord, Fluid actuated motor system and stroking device. U. S. Patent 2, 844–126 (1958)
B. Gorissen, M. De Volder, A. De Greef, D. Reynaerts, Theoretical and experimental analysis of pneumatic balloon microactuators. Sens. Actuat. A. Phys. 168(1), 58–65 (2011)
K. Harada, D. Oetomo, E. Susilo, A. Menciassi, D. Daney, J.P. Merlet, P. Dario, A reconfigurable modular robotic endoluminal surgical system: vision and preliminary results. Robotica 28(SI), 171–83 (2010)
S. Hirose, A. Morishima, S. Tukagosi et al. Design of practical snake vehicle: articulated body mobile robot KR-II, 91 ICAR. Fifth International Conference on Advanced Robotics. Robots in Unstructured Environments, Pisa, Italy Date: 19–22 June 1991, vol. 1, pp. 833–838.
O.C. Jeong, S. Konishi, J. Microelectro. Syst. 15, 896 (2006)
V. Karimyan, M. Sodergren, J. Clark, G.-Z. Yang, A. Darzi, Navigation systems and platforms in natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (notes). Int. J. Surg. 7, 297304 (2009)
J.-W. Kim, K. Yoshida, K. Kouda, S. Yokota, Sens. Actuat. A. Phys. 156, 366 (2009)
G. Klute, B. Hannaford, Accounting for elastic energy storage in mckibben articial muscle actuators. Trans. ASME. 122, 386–8 (2000)
S. Konishi, 2011 International Meeting for Future of Electron Devices (IMFEDK) 2011.
S. Konishi, F. Kawai, P. Cusin, Sens. Actuat. A. Phys. 89, 28 (2001)
Y.-W. Lu, C.-J. Kim, App. Phys. Let. 89, (2006)
R. Nayyar, N.P. Gupta, Critical appraisal of technical problems with robotic urological surgery. BJU Int. 105(12), 1710–3 (2010)
K.W. Oh, C.H. Ahn, A review of microvalves. J. Micromech. Microeng. 16, R13–39 (2006)
J. Peirs, J. Clijnen, D. Reynaerts, H. Van Brussel, P. Herijgers, B. Corteville, S. Boone, A micro optical force sensor for force feedback during minimally invasive robotic surgery. Sens. Actuat. A. Phys. 115, 447–55 (2004)
C. Raoufi, A. A. Goldenberg, W. Kucharczyk, J. Biomed. Scie. Engineer. 1, (2008)
D. Reynaerts, J. Peirs, H. Van Brussel, A mechatronic approach to microsystem design. IEEE-ASME Trans. Mech. 3(1), 24–33 (1998)
A. Ruzzu, K. Bade, J. Fahrenberg, D. Maas, J. Micromech. Microeng. 8, 161 (1998)
D. Stoianovici, A. Patriciu, D. Petrisor, D. Mazilu, L. Kavoussi, IEEE ASME Trans. Mechatron. 12, 98 (2007)
K. Suzumori, A. Koga, F. Kondo, R. Haneda, Robotica 14, 493 (1996)
K. Tadano, K. Kawashima, Adv. Robot. 24, 1763 (2010)
K. Takemura, S. Park, T. Maeno, J. Sound Vib. 311, 652 (2008)
E. Urata, S. Miyakawa, C. Yamashina, Y. Nakao, Y. Usami, M. Shinoda, JSME Int. J. Series B. Fluids Therm. Engineer. 41, 286 (1998)
S. Wakimoto, K. Suzumori, K. Ogura, Adv. Robot. 25, 1311 (2011)
Y. Watanabe, M. Maeda, N. Yajim, R. Nakamura, H. Iseki, M. Yamato, T. Okano, S. Hori, S. Konishi, Small, soft, and safe microactuator for retinal pigment epithelium transplantation. IEEE MEMS Conf. (2007) pp. 659–62
Y. Watanabe, M. Maeda, N. Yaji, R. Nakamura, H. Iseki, M. Yamato, T. Okano, S. Hori, S. Konishi, 2007 20th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems - MEMS ‘07 2007.
J.D. Waye, D.K. Rex, C.B. Williams, Colonoscopy: Principles and Practice, 2nd edn (Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2009)
R.J. Webster, A.M. Okamura, N.J. Cowan, Toward active cannulas: miniature snake-like surgical robots, IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. Intell. Robot. Syst. 1–12, 2857–63 (2006)
A. Yamaguchi, K. Takemura, S. Yokota, K. Edamura, A robot hand using electro-conjugate fluid. Sens. Actuat. A. Phys. 170(1–2), 139–46 (2011)
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by the Fund for Scientific Research (FWO), and the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT), Flanders, Belgium.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Moers, A.J.M., De Volder, M.F.L. & Reynaerts, D. Integrated high pressure microhydraulic actuation and control for surgical instruments. Biomed Microdevices 14, 699–708 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-012-9650-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-012-9650-y