Soft Robotics Technologies to Address Shortcomings in Today's Minimally Invasive Surgery: The STIFF-FLOP Approach
Soft Robotics Technologies to Address Shortcomings in Today's Minimally Invasive Surgery: The STIFF-FLOP Approach
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DOI：
10.1089/soro.2014.0001
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发表时间：
2014-06-01
期刊：
影响因子：
7.9
通讯作者：
Menciassi, Arianna
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cianchetti, Matteo;Ranzani, Tommaso;Menciassi, Arianna
大多数用于单部位或自然腔道腔内手术的器械都具有很强的应用特异性，因此只能有效执行特定的手术任务。然而，这些器械中的大多数是刚性的，缺乏足够数量的自由度（DOF），和/或不能基于待执行的任务来修改它们的机械特性。目前商业器械设计的理念主要集中在使用配备灵巧尖端的刚性工具创建微创手术系统。只有很少的研究工作是针对开发灵活的手术系统，具有许多自由度，甚至连续运动学。作者提出了外科手术器械设计的根本性变化：远离刚性工具，转向柔软和刚度可控器械的新概念。受生物学的启发，我们设想使用章鱼作为模型来创建这种柔软且刚度可控的医疗设备。章鱼提供了所有要求的功能，可以被视为灵感的宝贵来源。几种软技术适合于满足上述能力，在这篇文章中，最有前途的简要回顾。然后，我们说明了如何具体的技术可以应用在一种新的机械手的设计，灵活的手术，讨论其潜力，并提出了可行性测试的原型响应这种新的设计理念。我们的目标是研究将这些技术应用于微创手术领域的可行性，同时激发其他人的创造力，他们可以进一步利用所提出的概念来实现新的解决方案，并为所设计的技术产生特定的应用场景。
Most devices for single-site or natural orifice transluminal surgery are very application specific and, hence, capable of effectively carrying out specific surgical tasks only. However, most of these instruments are rigid, lack a sufficient number of degrees of freedom (DOFs), and/or are incapable of modifying their mechanical properties based on the tasks to be performed. The current philosophy in commercial instrument design is mainly focused on creating minimally invasive surgical systems using rigid tools equipped with dexterous tips. Only few research efforts are aimed at developing flexible surgical systems, with many DOFs or even continuum kinematics. The authors propose a radical change in surgical instrument design: away from rigid tools toward a new concept of soft and stiffness-controllable instruments. Inspired by biology, we envision creating such soft and stiffness-controllable medical devices using the octopus as a model. The octopus presents all the capabilities requested and can be viewed as a precious source of inspiration. Several soft technologies are suitable for meeting the aforementioned capabilities, and in this article a brief review of the most promising ones is presented. Then we illustrate how specific technologies can be applied in the design of a novel manipulator for flexible surgery by discussing its potential and by presenting feasibility tests of a prototype responding to this new design philosophy. Our aim is to investigate the feasibility of applying these technologies in the field of minimally invasive surgery and at the same time to stimulate the creativeness of others who could take the proposed concepts further to achieve novel solutions and generate specific application scenarios for the devised technologies.