Robotic Visible Forceps Manipulator With a Novel Linkage Bending Mechanism

In minimally invasive surgery (MIS), surgeons often suffer from occlusion region problems. It is difficult to solve these problems with traditional surgical instruments because of their size and rigid mechanical structure, such as endoscopes and corresponding operating tools. Thus, flexible manipulators and related robotic systems have been proposed for enhancing intraoperative inspection and surgical operation in MIS. Although a variety of flexible manipulators using different mechanisms have been developed, most of them are designed with a single function. In this paper, we present the concept of visible forceps that enriches the forceps function, which realizes the flexible bending capability and high output force, as well as the integrated endoscopic function. We developed a novel simplified linkage bending mechanism for forceps with a bendable tip and fabricated a robotic visible forceps manipulator system. According to this prototype, we performed experiments to evaluate the mechanical performance and the abdominal phantom test to evaluate the feasibility and usefulness. Preliminary results show that the forceps manipulator can realize both flexible bending capability and high output force, which implies promising applications in future MIS.