Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Motion And Force Transmission Of A Flexible Instrument Inside A Curved Endoscope, Jitendra P. Khatait

Jitendra P Khatait

Flexible instruments are increasingly used to perform advanced and complex surgical procedures either manually or robotically. The success of flexible instruments in surgery requires high motion and force fidelity, and controllability of the tip. However, the friction and the limited stiffness of such instruments limit their motion and force transmission. The implementation of flexible instruments in surgery necessitates their characterization, the development of proper tools to understand the effect of various mechanical parameters on their overall performance, and an improvement in motion and force fidelity. Therefore, this thesis describes 2-D and 3-D flexible multibody models of a flexible surgical instrument …