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Active compliance and force estimation of a continuum surgical manipulator based on the tip-pose feedback

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Abstract

Continuum manipulators have been applied in different surgical scenarios due to their dexterity and multi-DoF (degree of freedom) design compactness. To improve surgery safety, it is preferable to enable active compliance and force sensing abilities for a continuum manipulator. Existing works on active compliance and force sensing often rely on force sensors at the proximal or the distal ends, which inevitably increases the system complexity. In this paper, a shape reconstruction algorithm, a compliant motion controller, and a force estimation method are proposed successively based on the manipulator’s tip pose via visual feedback. Four support vector regression (SVR) trainers are constructed and trained to compensate for the actuation residues, which are the differences between the actual actuation lengths outputs at the actuators and the ideal actuation lengths calculated from the estimated shape using the kinematics model, under no-load condition. Then, a compliant motion controller and a force estimation method are realized based on the current actuation residues, compared with the actuation residues under the no-load condition. In this way, no additional sensors are needed as an endoscopic camera is often available in a laparoscopic or endoscopic surgical system. The experiments were conducted on a ϕ3 mm-continuum manipulator to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    BaiBo Wu, Chang Zhou, Xiang Wang & Kai Xu

  2. Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, 100730, China

    DaWei Sun

Authors
  1. BaiBo Wu
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  2. Chang Zhou
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  3. Xiang Wang
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  4. DaWei Sun
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  5. Kai Xu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kai Xu.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFB4700900) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51722507).

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The supporting information is available online at tech.scichina.com and link.springer.com. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

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Wu, B., Zhou, C., Wang, X. et al. Active compliance and force estimation of a continuum surgical manipulator based on the tip-pose feedback. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 66, 2517–2529 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-023-2422-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-023-2422-6

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