Ramon Estaña

Teleoperated assembly of a micro‐lens system by means of a micro‐manipulation workstation

Purpose – The aim of the research is to perform an accurate micromanipulation task, the assembly of a lens system, implementing safe procedures in a flexible microrobot‐based workstation for micromanipulation.Design/methodology/approach – The approach to the micromanipulation research issue consists in designing and building a micromanipulation station based on mobile microrobots, with 5 degrees of freedom and a size of a few cm3, capable of moving and manipulating by the use of tube‐shaped and multilayered piezo‐actuators. Controlled by visual and force/tactile sensor information, the micro‐robot is able to perform manipulation with a motion resolution down to 10 nm in a telemanipulated or semi‐automated mode, thus freeing human operators from the difficult task of handling minuscule objects directly. Equipped with purposely‐developed grippers, the robot can take over high‐precise grasping, transport, manipulation and positioning of mechanical or biological micro‐objects. A computer system using PC‐compa...

Exploring the micro‐ and nanoworld with cubic centimetre‐sized autonomous microrobots

In order to bridge the increasing gap between the micro‐ and nanotechnologies, a European consortium is currently developing and investigating a cluster of mobile, wireless cubic centimetre‐sized microrobots. The control and sensor issues which are to be solved for such a robot system are demanding. This paper describes the work carried out by one of the project partners. An interferometrical principle employing the so‐called “mechanical” interferometer based on the Moire‐effect is used for the position sensor system. Further sensor systems involve “local” microscope cameras, for which the extraction of depth information is crucial.

Design of a modular, flexible instrument with integrated DC-motors for minimal invasive robotic surgery

This paper proposes a novel concept of a flexible instrument for minimal invasive robotic surgery. The focus of this snake-like manipulator is to reduce the trauma for the patient and a shorter time of hospital stay. Furthermore the performance of complex interventions will be simplified due to the wide range of instruments degrees of freedom. The mechanism of this manipulator is built of several modular segments, which are linked to each other. The two DC-motors inside the segments submit the required two DoFs for generating a 3d pathway. The design of the mechanical parts, sensors and a concept for the control system will be presented in this paper. A simulation environment with an associated mathematical model is also implemented.

Design, modelling and control of a hyper-redundant 3-RPS parallel mechanism

In this paper, we describe the development of a hyper-constrained serial robot-assembly, which will lead do a snake-like kinematic. The goal of this robot is to serve as an experimental platform for a medical catheter for human surgery. We have two kinds of platform kinematics, namely the microscopic one, which depends of a three-actuator-solution, which gives us a 3-DOF1 moveability of the microscopic TCP (tool center point). The assembly of those microscopic units in a serial manner finally leads to a snake-like robot kinematic. Using MATLAB, we established a mathematical model for simulation, which can be fully integrated into the control loop for the different actuators. With the help of rapid prototyping(RP), we built up a physical model, which is actually in a testing phase.

Flexible instrument for minimally invasive robotic surgery using rapid prototyping technology for fabrication

The use of flexible instruments in the context of minimally-invasive robotic surgery poses a curiosity. This is because of the cleavage of flexibility, stiffness and the small size of the manipulators. Focusing on the medical point of view, flexible instruments enables an improved handling for more complex interventions and a shortened hospital stay and trauma reduction for the patient. In this paper a 3d printed cable-driven instrument with four degrees of freedom is described. Additionally the instrument is prepared for shape sensors and an autonomous tool can be attached at the tip. The instrument can be actuated by an optional DC-motor or hydraulic system. Finally, a corresponding mechanical model including a simulation and the first results are illustrated.

The MiCRoN Robot Project

The MiCRoN project aimed at the development of a new micro-robot system based on flexible mobile, 1 cm 3 sized robots acting autonomously. The eight European project partners started in March 2002 with the development of a system based on the results from the EU-Miniman Project. As a result, several fully independend and untethered working micro-robots have been developed that are handling parts with the size of about 60 μm under a local, robot-based microscope. Using a completely new, high resolution navigation system, the robots can be navigated within 5 μm. The minimal step width of the platform is 2 to 4 nanometer. The robot can be equipped with several tools for micro- and nano-handling as well as for biological cell handling. The energy support is realised with a power floor by using magnetic fields, while the communication is done via infra red. The robot itself is currently one of the highest integrated micro tools.

Towards a Real Micro Robotic Swarm

This paper introduces the I-SWARM project (Intelligent Small World Autonomous Robots for Micro-manipulation). This project aims at the development and production of a very large-scale artificial swarm (VLSAS) composed of several hundred micro-robots with a proposed size of 2× 2× 1 mm. This will be the first realisation of a swarm with such a large number of robots. The extremely small size of the robots will impose severe limitations on their sensory and computational capabilities which is to be compensated by collective behaviour and emerging swarm effects. This paper presents an overview over one faces in the realisation of such a swarm based on extremely miniaturised robots. Further a new concept for an on-board ego-positioning system is proposed and some initial concepts for simulation and task planning in such a VLSAS are presented.

EndoSnake—A Single-Arm-Multi-Port MIRS System with Flexible Instruments

Recently, the use of robotic assisted systems for minimally invasive surgery has increased. This is due to the precise manipulation and miniaturisation of the used equipment. The systems can be divided into multi-port and single-port robots, both with the aim of trauma reduction but with different approaches. On the one hand there are multiple robots, one with each instrument or camera and on the other hand there are small flexible instruments and only one incision in the abdominal wall. In this paper, a novel robotic system is presented that combines in a hybrid way the prior described characteristics and continues the medical aims of trauma reduction and surgeon comfort. One single lightweight robot with three individual configurable flexible instruments is being researched. Additionally, the modular hardware and software architecture is based on the open-source idea and rapid-manufacturing processes.

A three-armed slave-manipulator with snake-like instruments for laparoscopic surgery

The use and development of robotic systems in the clinical context is steadily increasing. In this paper, a novel, mechatronics fully-integrated and hybrid robotic system for minimally invasive surgery is presented. The focus for this work is to combine the advantages of the existing systems like MultiPort, Single-Port or NOTES. Through the use of three flexible instruments there exists a completely free steerable end-effector for surgical procedures. In addition to the described mechanical and electrical components, a modular concept is presented, in which the individual tools can be combined and interchanges arbitrarily. This is possible due to a ROS-based middleware infrastructure, which uses both network and bus technologies.

Microman - autonomous omni-directional microrobot-system for biotechnological and miniaturized automation

In this paper we present a new autonomous mobile robot for research focused on the field of biotechnology and miniaturized automation. The robot “Microman”, itself is modular structured by a basic and functional unit. With a diameter of 50mm and an omni-directional driving system the robot is able to move in comparison to other systems in a very limited area. Due to the wireless charging system in combination with a variety of different contactless sensors the use in contaminated applications is possible. In addition the robot comes with a versatile arena with several application modules, which are described in the system overview. Here a cell screening application is selected. The mechanical and electrical design as well as the novel color-based navigation system and first results complete this paper.