Robot-assisted surgery provides the surgeons with new tools to perform sophisticated surgical operations in a minimally
invasive manner. Small robotic end-effectors at the tip of the surgical forceps are the key advantage of robotic surgery
over laparoscopic surgery and any improvement on the design of these small robots can significantly improve the overall
functionality of the surgical robots. In this sense, novel bio-compatible electro-active polymeric actuators can improve
the design and functionality of these robotic end-effectors particularly by introducing smaller and more flexible robotic
tools. Here, we introduce the applications of IPMCs as flexible actuators with embedded tactile and force feedback
sensors in minimally-invasive robotic surgery. A new design for the robotic manipulation of the organs is presented in
which a two dimensional IPMC actuator is replaced with the rigid robotic distal tip. It is shown that with a customized
design, IPMC actuators maintain the required dexterity for two-dimensional bending of robotic distal tip. The overall
design of the robot could be considered as a hybrid robot with the combination of rigid robotic links and flexible IPMC
actuator with two degrees of freedom. On the other hand with the current robotic distal tips, no tactile force feedback is
available during surgery and the surgeons rely solely on vision feedback. With the proposed design of actuator, the
IPMC based distal tip could be used to deliver force feedback data by using an embedded IPMC tactile sensor. Design
considerations, kinematics and chemo-electro-mechanical model of the proposed actuator is presented.
A curvature sensor based on Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC) is proposed and characterized for sensing of
curvature variation in structures such as inflatable space structures in which using low power and flexible curvature
sensor is of high importance for dynamic monitoring of shape at desired points. The linearity of output signal of sensor
for calibration, effect of deflection rate at low frequencies and the phase delay between the output signal and the input
deformation of IPMC curvature sensor is investigated. An analytical chemo-electro-mechanical model for charge
dynamic of IPMC sensor is presented based on Nernst-Planck partial differential equation which can be used to explain
the phenomena observed in experiments. The rate dependency of output signal and phase delay between the applied
deformation and sensor signal is studied using the proposed model. The model provides a background for predicting the
general characteristics of IPMC sensor. It is shown that IPMC sensor exhibits good linearity, sensitivity, and
repeatability for dynamic curvature sensing of inflatable structures.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.