Development of a Flexure Based Mechanism forRobotic Micro-Surgical Applications

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 5-28-2025

Abstract

Traditional robot-assisted surgery, which relies onconventional mechanical mechanisms, has certain drawbacks,including friction, backlash, and the need for lubricants. Incontrast, compliant mechanisms utilizing flexure joints can achievethe desired motion while minimizing the disadvantages associatedwith movable joints. This research introduces a novel approach toaddress the issues prevalent in robot-assisted surgery. Our deviceincorporates flexure joints to enhance movement and eliminatecomplications posed by traditional movable joints. The primaryfocus of this study is on designing, analyzing, and validatinga flexible remote center-of-motion (RCM) mechanism intendedfor robot-assisted surgery. SolidWorks was used for modeling ofthe proposed mechanism with different configurations of jointsarrangement, and finite element analysis (FEA) was performedusing ANSYS to evaluate and compare different design iterationsin terms of RCM point drift in X and Y axis. Experimental Resultsshow that the optimized design keeps the RCM point drift withinacceptable microsurgical limits, with measured displacements of1.02mmalong the x-axis and 2.07mmalong the y-axis. Theseresults highlight the potential of compliant mechanism to improvethe accuracy and safety of robot-assisted microsurgical proceduresand point to a significant improvement over current mechanism.

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