LER: the light endoscope robot

LER is a compact surgical assistant robot for positioning of an endoscope and camera during minimally invasive surgery. In contrast to typical endoscope manipulators, LER is particularly compact and lightweight at 625 g and 110 mm in diameter, so that it is simple to set up and use, occupies no floor space, and does not limit access to the patient in any way. Our current prototype is fully sterilizeable by autoclave and is ready for clinical trials. It features a full motion range of 360° in rotation and inclination to 10° from the horizontal plane and is backdriveable for manual positioning. Actuation forces are limited for safety. LER may be held in place on the abdomen by adhesive strips or sutures, or attached to the sides of the table with elastic straps or clamps. We have implemented a variety of different user command interfaces for LER, including a miniature keypad, automatic optical instrument motion tracking, and voice command recognition. Experimental trajectory following results and performance parameters are given.