Design and Validation of a Master-slave Continuum Robot for Maxillary Sinus Surgery

Continuum robots (CRs) have been developed for maxillary sinus surgery (MSS) in recent years. However, due to the curved and narrow pathway of the maxillary sinus, and the deformability of the CR, accurately approaching the target in the sinus is still a challenge. In this paper, a CR integrated with essential instruments and sensors is developed for the MSS. To improve the maneuverability of the CR during the surgery, a master-slave motion control algorithm is proposed based on the kinematic model. Two types of commonly used master devices, joystick and sidestick, are compared in the MSS. Comparative experiments are performed to verify the feasibility of the proposed scheme.