Master Controller with Selective Palm Engagement for Teleoperation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing teleoperated systems, such as those used in teleoperated surgery, face challenges in allowing secure and fatigue-reduced manipulation of master controllers, particularly when they are ungrounded, as users may experience difficulty maintaining a secure grip and navigating the controller without being bound to a stationary workstation.
Innovation Solution
A master control device with a control body featuring a thumb grip portion and a finger grip portion, allowing selective engagement and disengagement with the palm, and a mechanically ungrounded design with a tethered connection, enabling wireless signal transmission and flexible manipulation, including a rotatable extension member for enhanced grasping security and precision.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the master controller is designed to be mechanically ungrounded for flexible manipulation, then the ease of operation is improved, but the reliability of maintaining a secure grip deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The master controller allows dynamic transition between grounded and ungrounded states. The control body can be selectively engaged with the palm (grounded state) or disengaged (ungrounded state), enabling the system to adapt between stability and flexibility based on operational needs. This dynamic reconfigurability resolves the contradiction by providing both states as needed rather than being fixed in one configuration.
2Ease of operation
If the control body length is increased to improve palm engagement, then the ease of operation is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control body is segmented into distinct functional portions: a palm engagement portion at the proximal end and grip portions (thumb grip and finger grip) at the distal end. This segmentation allows each portion to be optimized independently - the proximal end can be shaped for palm engagement without complicating the distal grip mechanisms, and vice versa. The modular structure reduces overall complexity while improving ease of operation.
Data Source
AI summary
Implementations relate to a master control device. In some implementations, a master control device includes a control body comprising a proximal end, a thumb grip portion, and a finger grip portion. The control body has a length configured to engage the proximal end of the control body in the palm of a hand of the user while the hand engages the thumb grip portion with a thumb of the hand and the finger grip portion with a finger of the hand. The control body is configured to allow the proximal end of the control body to be selectively engaged by the palm of the hand and selectively disengaged from the palm of the hand while the hand engages the thumb grip portion with the thumb of the hand and the finger grip portion with the finger of the hand.