This Small Business Innovative Research Phase I project proposes the design and mechanical development of a Dexterous Manipulator System (DMS), a telerobotic manipulator for use in microsurgical applications. Normal human hand motion possesses numerous position error components, such as physiological hand tremor, jerk, and low frequency wander. In microsurgery, such involuntary hand motion hampers performance, particularly in the ophthalmomlogical and neurological fields. Presently, surgeons cannot operate on individual blood vessels of the retina owing to such motion. The proposed robotic arm will alleviate the effect of physiological tremor, enhancing precision and enabling more difficult surgeries. The DMS is a mechanical robot wrist joint with up to 180 degrees of singularity-free pitch and yaw motion about a two-axis center. Acting like a double ball-and-socket joint, 180 degrees of hemispherical range of motion is achieved by phasing two joints together. Zero backlash is achieved by a unique, patent-pending, repeated linkage, parallel architecture that obviates gears and cable systems. An articulated arm carries the wrist for positioning which is driven by a unique parallelogram linkage. The proposed patent pending Dexterous Manipulator System revolutionizes surgical procedures permitting greater-than-human precision and dexterity. Not only will current procedures be improved, but new procedures will be made possible as well. There are 2,000,000 cataract operations and 300,000 vitreous procedures that are performed yearly in the U.S. Market potential for this technology includes all operating rooms performing micro-surgery. Non-surgical applications include semiconductor wafer handling, crystallography, and other applications requiring micro-manipulation.
