Structural synthesis of 2R1T type mechanisms for minimally invasive surgery applications

Abstract

Assistive and operative manipulators allow easier and more precise operations for minimally invasive surgery. Such manipulators often have a pivot point at the incision port on the pa-tient’s body, so the manipulator should have a remote center of motion. This study presents the structural synthesis of a non-parasitic 3-dof manipulator with 2R1T motion pattern to be used as a remote center of motion mechanism for minimally invasive surgery applications. The manipulators of various kinematic structure are evaluated considering criteria such as possibility of construction of the mechanism for remote center of motion, ease of dynamic balancing, number of links, structural symmetry, the number of actuators connected to the base and decoupling of the joint inputs and the output motion of the platform.