2A1-G08 Basic research on a robotic patch-stabilizer for minimally invasive fetal surgery : Experimental force control of a prototype using wire driven mechanism

Abstract

The clinical target of this study is intrauterine patch coverage of fetal myelomeningocele. The collagen patch is supposed to be stabilized onto the fragile fetal tissue during the laser fixation process. In this paper, a robotic patch stabilizer using wire driven mechanism (2 D.O.F, Max bending angle is 45[deg]) has been developed for precise force control on the patch without damaging fetal tissue. The diameter of the stabilizer's shaft is 2.4[mm] and the length of the stabilizing part is 60[mm].The driving wires are moved using an ultrasonic motor while the tension of the wires is measured using a force sensor. The stabilizing force was estimated by the wire tension with 3.5 % error between the estimated value and the measured value. The future work is to control the stabilizing force using a phantom of fetal fragility.