Abstract
Surgical instruments greatly impact the performance of robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RMIS) because they operate on tissues. A snake-like surgical instrument, designed with 4 degrees of freedom (DOFs), is proposed for RMIS. The DOFs are as follows: opening and closing motions of the forceps, rotation of the forceps and bi-directional bending of the instrument. The performance of the instrument was evaluated using a prototype in vitro. All DOFs of the instrument were experimentally evaluated and proven sufficient for RMIS. In vitro testing showed that the operations of the proposed model were powerful and steady. The position and posture of the surgical instrument could be adjusted in the body of the patient by its bending and rotational movements. The proposed model could therefore work as a competent assistant in multi-port RMIS and allow surgeons to perform better.
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