Wire-driven flexible manipulator with constrained spherical joints for minimally invasive surgery

Purpose

● One of the main factors that affects the rigidity of flexible robots is the twist deformation because of the external force exerted on the end effector.

● Another important factor that affects accuracy is the fact that such robots do not have a constant curvature. The conventional kinematic model assumes that the curvature is constant; however, in reality, it is not.

● To improve the rigidity and accuracy of flexible robots used in minimally invasive surgery via preventing the twist deformation while ensuring a constant curvature, we propose a novel flexible manipulator with ball-constrained spherical (BCS) joints and a spring.