Design of a robotic system for minimally invasive surgery of the middle ear

The tele-operated system with three arms for the microsurgery of the middle ear is composed of an operator console from where the surgeon tele-operates three robotized arms that hold surgery tools with a high level of accuracy. The main difference between these micromanipulators and the conventional minimally-invasive surgery robots is the increased field of vision capacity to carry out complex operational gestures without using dexterous tool with intra-body mobility. The method used to design the micromanipulator tool holder is described. A first task consists of analyzing functional specifications. The next step is to define and select a kinematic structure adapted to the task. Finally, a dimensional optimization is carried out by using Pareto front method.