Design of a 6-DOF Master Robot for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery

Master robots are integral components of teleoperated robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery systems. Among them, parallel mechanism-based 6-degree-of-freedom master robots are distinguished by low inertia and high-force feedback. However, complex kinematics and singularities are the main barriers limiting its usage. This study converts the Hexa-type 6-RUS mechanism into a master robot to construct master-slave teleoperation system. The clinical background is briefly introduced and a representative surgical robot is employed to analyze the master-slave mapping relationship. The inverse/forward kinematics, the Jacobian matrix, and the translation and orientation workspace are derived as the bases of master robot’s application. The architecture parameters are optimized by the global transmission index to achieve better motion/force transmissibility. Based on the optimal result, the prototype and the master-slave control loop are constructed. Finally, the corresponding master-slave teleoperation experiment and model experiment demonstrate that the proposed master robot satisfies the basic need for medical application.