Design and development of an assisting robotic arm in minimally invasive breast surgery

According to the actual requirement of minimally invasive breast surgery, we put forward the project of assisting robotic arm. The mechanism design is presented in detail after analyzing the whole system. By using the ball and socket joint, ball-joint-brake mechanism is proposed which satisfies the high dexterity and small physical volume requirement of the wrist joint. Then the pure mechanical switchover apparatus is designed to meet the requirement of heat disinfect process. A primary prototype has been built based on the brake designs of joints. Through ADAMS simulation and practical experiment, workspace of robotic arm extremity and the brake torque parameters of ball joint are obtained. The result proves the feasibility of assisting robotic arm using in the surgery.