Purpose

In the era of patient-centered medicine, clinical procedures, tools and instruments should be individually adapted to the patient. In this context, the presented 3D-printed Single-Port Overtube Manipulator System follows the aims to provide patient- and task-specific disposable manipulators for minimally invasive surgery. In a first experiment, the robustness of the monolithic flexure hinge structures in use as robotic manipulators will be investigated.

Methods

Customizable monolithic manipulator structures designed by means of an automated design process and manufactured with selective laser sintering were investigated with regard to long-term stability in an endurance test. Therefore, a bare manipulator arm, an arm equipped with a standard instrument and finally loaded with an additional load of 0.5 N were evaluated by continuously following a trajectory within the workspace of the manipulator arms over a period of 90 min.

Results

The unloaded manipulator as well as the manipulator arm equipped with a standard instrument showed a sufficient reproducibility (deviation of 1.5 mm and 2.5 mm, respectively, on average) with regard to an application as telemanipulated master–slave surgical robotic system. The 3D-printed manipulators showed no damage and maintained integrity after the experiment.

Conclusion

It has been shown that 3D-printed manipulators in principle are suitable for use as disposable surgical manipulator systems and offer a long-term stability over at least 90 min. The developed manipulator design shows great potential for the production of patient-, task- and user-specific robot systems. However, the manipulator geometries as well as the control strategies still show room for improvements.

中文翻译：

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评估用于微创手术的整体式3D打印机器人机械手结构的长期稳定性。

目的

在以患者为中心的医学时代，临床程序，工具和仪器应根据患者情况进行单独调整。在这种情况下，提出的3D打印单端口上管机械手系统的目标是为微创手术提供针对患者和任务的一次性机械手。在第一个实验中，将研究用作机器人操纵器的整体式挠性铰链结构的坚固性。

方法

在耐久性测试中，研究了通过自动化设计过程设计并使用选择性激光烧结制造的可定制整体式机械手结构的长期稳定性。因此，通过在90分钟的时间内连续跟踪机械臂的工作空间内的轨迹，评估了机械臂的裸露臂，装备有标准仪器的臂并最终加载了0.5 N的附加载荷。

结果

对于远程操纵的主从外科手术机器人系统，空载的机械手以及配备有标准仪器的机械手均具有足够的可重复性（平均偏差分别为1.5 mm和2.5 mm）。3D打印的机械手在实验后未显示任何损坏，并保持了完整性。

结论

已经显示出3D打印的机械手原则上适合用作一次性手术机械手系统，并且在至少90分钟内提供长期稳定性。先进的机械手设计在生产针对患者，任务和用户特定的机器人系统方面显示出巨大潜力。但是，机械手的几何形状以及控制策略仍然显示出改进的空间。