ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on robots used for minimally invasive surgery, which is one of the most active areas for research and development of surgical robots. Actuators are needed to control surgical robots. Direct current electric motors are widely used in robots. For example, permanent magnet DC motors with coreless winding are used in the da Vinci system. A reduction gear is required to generate enough torque for the motor to rotate the robot’s joint. Pneumatic actuators have many safety advantages such as low heat generation, compressibility, the ability to control the maximum force by regulating the supply pressure, ease of releasing the acting force by discharging the compressed air in the actuator, and the ability to develop a robotic arm that is both compact and lightweight. The actuation force by the cylinders is transmitted to the tip part via wires. Three wires pass through the forceps shaft and the flexible joint. The cylinder displacements are measured by the linear potentiometers.
