MECHANICAL DESIGN, ACTUATION AND CONTROL OF BIOINSPIRED SOFT SURGICAL ROBOTS

Abstract

The design of surgical soft robots is one of the most challenging problems in modern robotics. In addition to the still pending problems of general soft robotics i.e. selection/design of materials, actuators, and mechanical structures, there are serious limitations in terms of their operating environment and conditions: interaction with biological tissues, the effect of sterilization and cleaning liquids, the shape and dimensions of the working space, as well as often occurring accidents during the surgery which poses new robotic control problems to be studied. As it is known, each object of bioinspiration (elephant trunk, octopus leg, etc.) has its own type of motion, kinematic structure, and control, therefore the comparative analysis of soft robots according to different objects of bioinspiration will facilitate their selection and application in minimally invasive surgery (MIS), taking into account, of course, the limitations associated with the surgery. A review of modern literature on mechanical design, methods and technical means of actuation and control of the main types of bioinspired soft surgical robots is presented.The design and development problems, including material selection, mechanical design and optimization, actuation, and bioinspired control for each type of the existing soft surgical robots are discussed. The results and recommendations of this study will help to develop new samples of soft surgical robotic devices with task-specific functional characteristics necessary for MIS applications.