Design and use of a master manipulator for a micro-neurosurgical system based on motion analysis

At present, master and slave surgical assistant systems are being actively studied. However, most of the researches focus on the slave manipulator. It is very important to develop a suitable master manipulator in order to support a more comfortable surgical environment. It also could lead to an increase in the success rate of operations. In this research, a dedicated master manipulator was designed to improve the manipulability in robotic-assisted neurosurgery. This is done because the requirements to the neurosurgery such as workspace and precision are different from those of other surgeries. Therefore, the motion of neurosurgeons was first analysed. Then, this knowledge of motion was taken into account during designing phase. A link mechanism is proposed to ensure that the motion vector of the manipulator is analogous to that of the human hand. The experimental results validated that the manipulability was improved with the developed master manipulator.