542 Surgical Application of Flexible Micro Actuator
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This paper presents a retractor as one of micro surgical tools, which was realized by applying flexible micro actuator. The refractor holds the abdominal organ to the side during the entire operation to keep the sight and operational space in endoscopic surgery. The retractor is actuated by PBA (Pneumatic Balloon Actuator), which is featured its small, soft and safe characteristics. PBA is fabricated through the simple PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) molding process and pneumatically driven. That is to say, it is possible to hold the organ to the side safely. We researched characteristics of retractor, and verified removal of abdominal organ from the experiment on a living rabbit.
