A 6-DOF hybrid actuation system for a medical robot under MRI environment

Abstract

Medical robotic systems are widely developing for the efficient operation. Robotics has offered many viable solutions for applications ranging from marine, industry, domestic and medical. One of the key challenges is the design and control of actuation systems. This paper presents a 6-DOF actuation system for a medical robot deployed in magnetic resonance imaging system. It is a hybrid system designed to actuate two distinct mechanisms; concentric tube and tendon actuated robots. The actuation system is designed to fit inside the bore of commercially available Siemens® 3T MR scanner and set to follow the predefined anatomical constraints. As a preliminary analysis, the stroke of the developed actuation system was measured to analyze the workspace. Further experimentation will be performed in the future to validate the effectiveness of the presented system.