Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Design Of A Robotic Instrument Manipulator For Endoscopic Deployment, Ryan Ponten

Masters Theses

This thesis describes the initial design process for an application of continuum robotics to endoscopic surgical procedures, specifically dissection of the colon. We first introduce the long-term vision for a benchtop dual-instrument endoscopic system with intuitive haptic controllers and then narrow our focus to the design and testing of the instrument manipulator itself, which must be actuated through the long, winding channel of a standard colonoscope.

Based on design requirements for a target procedure, we analyze simulations of two types of continuum robots using recently established kinematic and mechanic modeling approaches: the concentric-tube robot (CTR) and the concentric agonist-antagonist robot …