Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne

Distalmotion Sa

Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (epfl) Epfl-tto

Ricardo Beira

Lionel Flaction

Hannes Bleuler

Reymond Clavel

A novel mechanical system, based on a new cable driven mechanical transmission, able to provide sufficient dexterity, stiffness, speed, precision and payload capacity to actuate multi-DOF micro-manipulators. Besides the possibility of being used in several articulated surgical instruments and robotic systems for surgery or other applications involving remote manipulation, it enables the design of a novel fully mechanical surgical instrument, which offer the advantages of conventional laparoscopy (low cost, tactile feedback, high payload capacity) combined with the advantages of single port surgery (single incision, scarless surgery, navigation through several quadrants of the abdominal cavity) and robotic surgery (greater degrees of freedom, short learning curve, high stiffness, high precision, increased intuition). The unique design of the proposed system provides an intuitive user interface to achieve such enhanced maneuverability, allowing each joint of a teleoperated slave system to be driven by controlling the position of a mechanically connected master unit.

Mechanical manipulator for surgical instruments

A mechanical teleoperated device for remote manipulation includes a slave unit having a number of slave links interconnected by a plurality of slave joints; an end-effector connected to the slave unit; a master unit having a corresponding number of master links interconnected by a plurality of master joints; and a handle connected to a distal end of the master unit. The device further includes first device arranged to kinematically connect the slave unit with the master unit, second device arranged to kinematically connect the end-effector with the handle, and a mechanical constraint device configured to ensure that one master link of the master unit is guided along its longitudinal axis so that the corresponding slave link of the slave unit always translates along a virtual axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the guided master link in the vicinity of the remote manipulation when the mechanical teleoperated device is operated.

Growing community of inventors

Lausanne, Switzerland

Ricardo Beira