Hybrid manipulator with force estimation for lower gastrointestinal interventions
File(s)
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This letter introduces a novel hybrid manipulator composed of two pneumatically-actuated soft segments and a tendon-driven continuum segment, connected in series. The soft segments enhance the mobility of the tendon-driven manipulator, enabling functionalities such as triangulation while maintaining low tool stiffness, making it suitable for endoluminal surgery in the lower gastrointestinal tract. A key advantage of this design is the implementation of a model-based controller and an observer-based contact force estimation method, which estimates external forces based on the configuration and actuation of the soft segments. This approach is experimentally compared to a tendon tension sensing methodology, known as intrinsic force sensing. The experiments include typical lifting and pushing tasks, along with realistic operations on ex-vivo porcine intestinal tissue. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach in surgical applications and its advantages over intrinsic force sensing, achieving an average 15.8% reduction in normalized RMSE among all tasks.
Date Issued
2024-11-01
Date Acceptance
2024-08-28
Citation
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2024, 9 (11), pp.9709-9716
ISSN
2377-3766
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Start Page
9709
End Page
9716
Journal / Book Title
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Volume
9
Issue
11
Copyright Statement
©2024 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License URL
Subjects
COMPLICATIONS
Force and tactile sensing
medical robots and systems
Robotics
ROBOTS
Science & Technology
soft robot applications
Technology
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2024-09-18