Development of a Master Slave Manipulator with Force Display using Pneumatic Servo System for Laparoscopic Surgery

Development of a Master Slave Manipulator with Force Display using Pneumatic Servo System for Laparoscopic Surgery

  In the teleoperated minimally invasive surgery systems, measurement and display of sense of force to the operator is a problem. In this paper, a manipulator for supporting forceps has been developed which has 3-DOFs actuated by pneumatic cylinders. We also developed a master manipulator using a delta mechanism and a gimbal mechanism with a force sensor and motors with reduction gears. In the developed masterslave system, we applied different impedance control to each manipulator. The force control type of impedance control is adopted from the measured pressures in the pneumatic cylinders without using force sensors at the slave manipulator. For the master manipulator, the motion control type of impedance control is implemented. The experimental results indicated that the operator could feel the force at the slave side to a satisfactory extent.