Design and analysis of a mechanism for enhanced flexibility in minimally invasive surgical instruments

Minimally invasive surgeries require precise and dexterous movements which are difficult to perform by means of rigid instruments. In this paper, we present the design and analysis of a mechanism for flexibility in minimally invasive surgical instruments. The designed mechanism is cable-driven and it provides 4DOF degrees of freedom. The mechanism consists of three main components including wrist, cables and back end mechanism and end effector. The goal behind this work is to give the surgeon the possibility of orienting the tip of the surgical instrument directly in a more natural way.