Kinematic analysis of a flexible surgical instrument for robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery

Mei Feng,Zhixue Ni,Yili Fu,Xingze Jin,Wei Liu,Xiuquan Lu,Mei Feng,Zhixue Ni,Yili Fu,Xingze Jin,Wei Liu,Xiuquan Lu

Flexible surgical instruments can flexibly adjust their posture with a high degree of freedom, which makes them highly suitable for performing surgical tasks in narrow workspaces. However, redundant degrees of freedom increase their kinematic difficulty, which may cause redundant solutions, complex calculations, and low speeds. In this paper, a flexible surgical instrument is presented. The struct...