Robotic manipulators for single access surgery

This thesis explores the development of cooperative robotic manipulators for enhancing surgical precision and patient outcomes in single-access surgery and, specifically, Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery (TEM). During these procedures, surgeons manipulate a heavy set of instruments via a mechanical clamp inserted in the patient’s body through a surgical port, resulting in imprecise movements, increased patient risks, and increased operating time. Therefore, an articulated robotic manipulator with passive joints is initially introduced, featuring built-in position and force sensors in each joint and electronic joint brakes for instant lock/release capability. The articulated manipulator concept is further improved with motorised joints, evolving into an active tool holder. The joints allow the incorporation of advanced robotic capabilities such as ultra-lightweight gravity compensation and hands-on kinematic reconfiguration, which can optimise the placement of the tool holder in the operating theatre. Due to the enhanced sensing capabilities, the application of the active robotic manipulator was further explored in conjunction with advanced image guidance approaches such as endomicroscopy. Recent advances in probe-based optical imaging such as confocal endomicroscopy is making inroads in clinical uses. However, the challenging manipulation of imaging probes hinders their practical adoption. Therefore, a combination of the fully cooperative robotic manipulator with a high-speed scanning endomicroscopy instrument is presented, simplifying the incorporation of optical biopsy techniques in routine surgical workflows. Finally, another embodiment of a cooperative robotic manipulator is presented as an input interface to control a highly-articulated robotic instrument for TEM. This master-slave interface alleviates the drawbacks of traditional master-slave devices, e.g., using clutching mechanics to compensate for the mismatch between slave and master workspaces, and the lack of intuitive manipulation feedback, e.g. joint limits, to the user. To address those drawbacks a joint-space robotic manipulator is proposed emulating the kinematic structure of the flexible robotic instrument under control.Open Acces

Automation tools for flexible aircraft maintenance.

This report summarizes the accomplishments of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project 26546 at Sandia, during the period FY01 through FY03. The project team visited four DoD depots that support extensive aircraft maintenance in order to understand critical needs for automation, and to identify maintenance processes for potential automation or integration opportunities. From the visits, the team identified technology needs and application issues, as well as non-technical drivers that influence the application of automation in depot maintenance of aircraft. Software tools for automation facility design analysis were developed, improved, extended, and integrated to encompass greater breadth for eventual application as a generalized design tool. The design tools for automated path planning and path generation have been enhanced to incorporate those complex robot systems with redundant joint configurations, which are likely candidate designs for a complex aircraft maintenance facility. A prototype force-controlled actively compliant end-effector was designed and developed based on a parallel kinematic mechanism design. This device was developed for demonstration of surface finishing, one of many in-contact operations performed during aircraft maintenance. This end-effector tool was positioned along the workpiece by a robot manipulator, programmed for operation by the automated planning tools integrated for this project. Together, the hardware and software tools demonstrate many of the technologies required for flexible automation in a maintenance facility

Robot Manipulators

Robot manipulators are developing more in the direction of industrial robots than of human workers. Recently, the applications of robot manipulators are spreading their focus, for example Da Vinci as a medical robot, ASIMO as a humanoid robot and so on. There are many research topics within the field of robot manipulators, e.g. motion planning, cooperation with a human, and fusion with external sensors like vision, haptic and force, etc. Moreover, these include both technical problems in the industry and theoretical problems in the academic fields. This book is a collection of papers presenting the latest research issues from around the world

Proceedings of the NASA Conference on Space Telerobotics, volume 3

The theme of the Conference was man-machine collaboration in space. The Conference provided a forum for researchers and engineers to exchange ideas on the research and development required for application of telerobotics technology to the space systems planned for the 1990s and beyond. The Conference: (1) provided a view of current NASA telerobotic research and development; (2) stimulated technical exchange on man-machine systems, manipulator control, machine sensing, machine intelligence, concurrent computation, and system architectures; and (3) identified important unsolved problems of current interest which can be dealt with by future research

Fourth Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 90)

The proceedings of the SOAR workshop are presented. The technical areas included are as follows: Automation and Robotics; Environmental Interactions; Human Factors; Intelligent Systems; and Life Sciences. NASA and Air Force programmatic overviews and panel sessions were also held in each technical area

Parallel Manipulators

In recent years, parallel kinematics mechanisms have attracted a lot of attention from the academic and industrial communities due to potential applications not only as robot manipulators but also as machine tools. Generally, the criteria used to compare the performance of traditional serial robots and parallel robots are the workspace, the ratio between the payload and the robot mass, accuracy, and dynamic behaviour. In addition to the reduced coupling effect between joints, parallel robots bring the benefits of much higher payload-robot mass ratios, superior accuracy and greater stiffness; qualities which lead to better dynamic performance. The main drawback with parallel robots is the relatively small workspace. A great deal of research on parallel robots has been carried out worldwide, and a large number of parallel mechanism systems have been built for various applications, such as remote handling, machine tools, medical robots, simulators, micro-robots, and humanoid robots. This book opens a window to exceptional research and development work on parallel mechanisms contributed by authors from around the world. Through this window the reader can get a good view of current parallel robot research and applications

Human-robot interaction for assistive robotics

This dissertation presents an in-depth study of human-robot interaction (HRI) withapplication to assistive robotics. In various studies, dexterous in-hand manipulation is included, assistive robots for Sit-To-stand (STS) assistance along with the human intention estimation. In Chapter 1, the background and issues of HRI are explicitly discussed. In Chapter 2, the literature review introduces the recent state-of-the-art research on HRI, such as physical Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), robot STS assistance, dexterous in hand manipulation and human intention estimation. In Chapter 3, various models and control algorithms are described in detail. Chapter 4 introduces the research equipment. Chapter 5 presents innovative theories and implementations of HRI in assistive robotics, including a general methodology of robotic assistance from the human perspective, novel hardware design, robotic sit-to-stand (STS) assistance, human intention estimation, and control

Recommended fine positioning test for the Development Test Flight (DTF-1) of the NASA Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS)

Test procedures are proposed for the NASA DTF (Development Test Flight)-1 positioning tests of the FTS (Flight Telerobotic Servicer). The unique problems associated with the DTF-1 mission are discussed, standard robot performance tests and terminology are reviewed and a very detailed description of flight-like testing and analysis is presented. The major technical problem associated with DTF-1 is that only one position sensor can be used, which will be fixed at one location, with a working volume which is probably smaller than some of the robot errors to be measured. Radiation heating of the arm and the sensor could also cause distortions that would interfere with the test. Two robot performance testing committees have established standard testing procedures relevant to the DTF-1. Due to the technical problems associated with DTF-1, these procedures cannot be applied directly. These standard tests call for the use of several test positions at specific locations. Only one position, that of the position sensor, can be used by DTF-1. Off-line programming accuracy might be impossible to measure and in that case it will have to be replaced by forward kinetics accuracy

Topics in Machining with Industrial Robot Manipulators and Optimal Motion Control

Two main topics are considered in this thesis: Machining with industrial robot manipulators and optimal motion control of robots and vehicles. The motivation for research on the first subject is the need for flexible and accurate production processes employing industrial robots as their main component. The challenge to overcome here is to achieve high-accuracy machining solutions, in spite of the strong process forces required for the task. Because of the process forces, the nonlinear dynamics of the manipulator, such as the joint compliance and backlash, may significantly degrade the achieved machining accuracy of the manufactured part. In this thesis, a macro/micro-manipulator configuration is considered to the purpose of increasing the milling accuracy. In particular, a model-based control architecture is developed for control of the macro/micro-manipulator setup. The considered approach is validated by experimental results from extensive milling experiments in aluminium and steel. Related to the problem of high-accuracy milling is the topic of robot modeling. To this purpose, two different approaches are considered; modeling of the quasi-static joint dynamics and dynamic compliance modeling. The first problem is approached by an identification method for determining the joint stiffness and backlash. The second problem is approached by using gray-box identification based on subspace-identification methods. Both identification algorithms are evaluated experimentally. Finally, online state estimation is considered as a means to determine the workspace position and orientation of the robot tool. Kalman Filters and Rao-Blackwellized Particle Filters are employed to the purpose of sensor fusion of internal robot measurements and measurements from an inertial measurement unit for estimation of the desired states. The approaches considered are fully implemented and evaluated on experimental data. The second part of the thesis discusses optimal motion control applied to robot manipulators and road vehicles. A control architecture for online control of a robot manipulator in high-performance path tracking is developed, and the architecture is evaluated in extensive simulations. The main characteristic of the control strategy is that it combines coordinated feedback control along both the tangential and transversal directions of the path; this separation is achieved in the framework of natural coordinates. One motivation for research on optimal control of road vehicles in time-critical maneuvers is the desire to develop improved vehicle-safety systems. In this thesis, a method for solving optimal maneuvering problems using nonlinear optimization is discussed. More specifically, vehicle and tire modeling and the optimization formulations required to get useful solutions to these problems are investigated. The considered method is evaluated on different combinations of chassis and tire models, in maneuvers under different road conditions, and for investigation of optimal maneuvers in systems for electronic stability control. The obtained optimization results in simulations are evaluated and compared