Design and balancing of a novel 2R1T manipulator with remote center of motion

Abstract

The paper presents a novel manipulator design to be used as an endoscope holder for endonasal skull base surgeries. The manipulator should provide two rotational and one translational motions for the endoscope, where it should be able to be oriented about and slide along the tip of the nostril of a patient as a pivot point. First, suitable manipulators with remote center motion are investigated. Manipulators with serial and hybrid kinematic structure and redundant manipulators with a passive joint are examined. A serial manipulator with a circular arc as the second rotation axis is chosen for the detailed design. The novelty of the kinematic structure of the manipulator is that the end-effector heave motion is achieved in a tangential direction to the circular arc. The constructional design and counter-mass balancing solution for the manipulator are presented. The total assembly mass is 11.6 kg for navigating an endoscope of 0.44 kg mass.