Robotic devices can allow doctors to intuitively command precise motions of surgical tools within the body while requiring much smaller incisions and less damage to healthy tissue than conventional surgery. Today, the use of such surgical robots has reduced patient recovery times, trauma, and costs in an increasing number of procedures. However, the impact of robotics in surgery remains hindered by the limited dexterity, low strength, and relatively large size of current robotic tools, especially for procedures which require operation within highly confined spaces that are difficult to access. This award supports fundamental robotics research that will improve public health by creating smaller, stronger, and more dexterous robotic tools for minimally invasive surgery. This will benefit broad patient populations by enabling new procedures to be performed robotically and existing robotic procedures to be performed more efficiently. Beyond these medical benefits, the research will also serve the manufacturing and service industries by creating robots that can work alongside humans with inherent safety due to their lightweight, compliant structure. Educational activities are integrated with the research which will help broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in engineering research through hands-on robot design challenges for high school students.
The project will address the primary robotics questions of design synthesis, modeling, and control for parallel continuum manipulators comprised of multiple flexible legs which each bend independently. Successful completion of the project will include (1) design and construction of two testbed system prototypes, (2) an experimentally validated, mechanics-based modeling framework for manipulator kinematics and statics, (3) a set of design guidelines driven by model-based analysis of workspace, dexterity, and stiffness, and (4) a kinematic control approach demonstrated by teleoperation to complete dexterous tasks with safe human interaction. This research will unify two previously separate fields of robotics, namely parallel manipulators and continuum manipulators. It will advance knowledge in both fields by realizing a hybrid class of manipulators and providing a model-based framework for understanding their behavior, designing them, and controlling them. The project will also represent the first application of large-deflection Cosserat-rod theory (which has only recently been introduced to the robotics community) to parallel robots. By answering the fundamental robotics questions in this new area, a body of useful knowledge and tools will be made available for researchers to make further advances in minimally invasive robotic surgery and human-robot interaction.
