Development of universal gripping adapters: Sterile coupling of medical devices and robots using robotic fingers

In this article a new universal gripping adapter for a medical macro-micro telemanipulation system for the middle ear surgery is presented. The telemanipulation system should enable the surgeon to precisely manipulate tissue in interventions at the middle ear like the stapedotomy. The system proposed by Entsfellner et al. [1] contains of a joystick console, a robotic carrier system (macro-manipulator) with a robotic hand and three fingers, an active gripping adapter, a surgical micro-manipulator, and a microsurgical instrument. Using the adapter, no further modifications at the medical approved carrier system are necessary. The carrier system holds and guides the micro-manipulator with help of its robotic fingers. Both robotic systems can be sterilized using separate sterile foils. So the micro-manipulator can be attached to or removed from the carrier system at any time during an operation, and, if desired, exchanged with another device like, e.g., an endoscope. Furthermore, the control of the micro-manipulator by slightly moving the robotic fingers is possible and so no further cables or connections are necessary to transmit the control signals from the macro to the micro-manipulator. The surgeon can control the whole system telemanipulated by an OR (operating room) table mounted joystick console with touch display.