A robot for tele-manipulation

微创手术（MIS），特别是机器人和机器人辅助的微创手术（MIS）的接受度正在迅速提高，在这种手术过程中，手术过程对健康器官和组织的损害降到最低。然而，目前，MIS的主要缺点之一是外科医生的手不在手术本身的部位。因此，外科医生被剥夺了在开放手术过程中容易获得的某些信息和能力。这些包括触诊组织，确定组织质地和定位触觉特征，如隐藏的肿块，动脉和肿瘤嵌入复杂组织的位置和大小。这证明了触觉传感和反馈系统在MIS和机器人手术中的重要性。为了恢复这些缺失的能力，研究人员和本申请人都付出了很大的努力。由此产生的进展，包括合适的力/柔软触觉传感器的开发，远程柔软显示和远程操作系统都显示出有希望的结果。然而，由于缺乏集成所有这些子组件的机器人系统，进一步的进展受到阻碍。因此，申请人旨在通过使用适当的机器人系统来挑战这一新兴领域。该系统基本上由一个机械手组成，通常有六个自由度，其中编码器提供每个自由度的位置信息。除了标准系统中通常包含的电缆和输入/输出卡之外，还需要几个附件，例如基于视觉的系统，以验证有或没有视觉的性能。由于智能内窥镜抓取器将被机器人末端执行器取代，在特定任务期间，触觉信息将被记录和收集，并在主工作站使用柔软度显示器进行重建。

There is a rapidly growing acceptance of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) and particularly robotic and robotic assisted MIS in which surgical procedures are performed such that minimizes damage to healthy organs and tissues. However, at present, one of the major disadvantages of MIS is that the surgeon's hands are not at the site of the operation itself. Consequently, surgeons are deprived of certain information and capabilities that are easily obtainable during open surgical procedures. These include palpation of tissues, determining tissue texture and locating tactile features such as hidden lumps, location and sizes of arteries and tumors embedded within a complex tissue. This demonstrates the importance of haptic sensing and feedback systems in MIS and robotized surgery.Much effort, on the part of researchers and this applicant, has been made to restore these missing capabilities. The resulting advancements, which include development of a suitable force/softness tactile sensor, tele-softness display and a tele-manipulation system have all shown promising results. However, further progress is retarded due to the lack of a robotic system to integrate all of these subcomponents.The applicant has, therefore, aimed at challenging this emerging area by utilizing an appropriate robotic system. This system basically consists of a manipulator, normally having six degrees of freedom, in which encoders provide information on the position of each degree of freedom. In addition to cabling and an Input/Output card, which are normally included in a standard system, several accessories are needed such as a vision based system to verify performance with or without vision. Because the smart endoscopic grasper will be replaced by the robot end effector, tactile information would be recorded and collected during specific tasks and be reconstructed at a master workstation using a softness display.