Robotic technologies are being increasingly utilized for medical treatments to support surgeons and reduce the burden on patients. Flexible endoscopic surgical systems with an endoscope and flexible forceps robots are state‐of‐the‐art devices that are expected to realize more difficult and less invasive surgery. Surgeons teleoperate these flexible forceps robots as their own hands and conduct various medical tasks. The wire‐driven mechanism is applied to many flexible forceps robots to transmit the driving force to the tip of the robots in a narrow space. However, the flexible structure makes it difficult to control the wire‐driven robots and implement the haptic technologies to realize safer surgery. In this paper, a force sensor‐less, small‐diameter flexible forceps robot with the ability to transmit haptic sensation is presented. The driving part at the tip of the flexible part, composed of a small actuator with a reduction mechanism, realizes the miniaturization of the robot. Haptic information is estimated by low‐resolution position information. The bending of the flexible part with electric wires does not deteriorate the performance of the end effector. The performance of the haptic flexible forceps robot is evaluated through experiments.

中文翻译：

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小直径触觉柔性夹持钳机器人的研制

机器人技术正越来越多地用于医学治疗，以支持外科医生并减轻患者负担。配备内窥镜的柔性内窥镜外科手术系统和柔性镊子机器人是最先进的设备，有望实现更困难，创伤更少的手术。外科医生用自己的双手遥控这些灵活的镊子机器人并执行各种医疗任务。线驱动机制已应用于许多柔性镊子机器人，以在狭窄的空间内将驱动力传递到机器人的尖端。但是，灵活的结构使得难以控制有线机器人和实施触觉技术来实现更安全的手术。在本文中，提出了一种具有无力传感器，小直径挠性钳的机器人，该机器人能够传递触觉。柔性部分末端的驱动部分由带有减速机构的小型执行器组成，实现了机器人的小型化。触觉信息由低分辨率位置信息估计。用电线弯曲柔性部分不会降低末端执行器的性能。通过实验评估触觉柔性钳机器人的性能。