Function simulation of a 4 degree-of-freedom robot for artery manipulation during vascular surgery

Atheroma is one of the main causes of failure of arterial system. One of the most common approaches of treatment of this aneurysm is the bypass surgery. During this surgery, the surgeon has to free the artery from the surrounding tissue. To accomplish this, a hook, right- angle clamp, is used. However, there is always the possibility of damaging the veins and/or the neural paths around the artery while working with this mechanical hook. The reason for this is that the hook might not exactly circle the artery and its tip follows a different path from artery´s outer surface. In this study, we considered a 4-degree-of-planar freedom robot, which is aimed to free the artery with making no damages to surrounding tissue, and analyzed its path following. Movements of the links of the robot were modeled under some boundary conditions, like definite space between the tip of the robot and the outer surface of the artery, and the path followed by the tip of the robot was extracted. Also, the different angles of the joints versus time were extracted and it was concluded that although under the considered boundary condition the goal is achieved, the movement could be improved.