title: A novel remote center of motion mechanism for the force-reflective master robot of haptic tele-surgery systems.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  An effective master robot for haptic tele-surgery applications needs to provide a solution for the inversed movements of the surgical tool, in addition to sufficient workspace and manipulability, with minimal moving inertia.
  
  
  METHODS
  A novel 4 + 1-DOF mechanism was proposed, based on a triple parallelogram linkage, which provided a Remote Center of Motion (RCM) at the back of the user's hand. The kinematics of the robot was analyzed and a prototype was fabricated and evaluated by experimental tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  With a RCM at the back of the user's hand the actuators far from the end effector, the robot could produce the sensation of hand-inside surgery with minimal moving inertia. The target workspace was achieved with an acceptable manipulability. The trajectory tracking experiments revealed small errors, due to backlash at the joints.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The proposed mechanism meets the basic requirements of an effective master robot for haptic tele-surgery applications.
authors.affiliation: Mechanical Engineering Department, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran; Robotic Surgery Lab., Research Centre of Biomedical Technology and Robotics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mostafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hadavand
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mirbagheri
authors.forename: Saeed
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Behzadipour
authors.forename: Farzam
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Farahmand
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004867:Equipment Design; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation; D009038:Motion; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D065287:Robotic Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation*
keywords: fulcrum effect; kinematics analysis; moving inertia; parallelogram mechanism; trajectory tracking