Spherical Joint Ring Structure for Stable Medical Manipulator Bending
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Solution Overview
Problem
Laparoscopic surgery's limited degree of freedom and increased procedural difficulty due to restricted access routes necessitate a more stable and precise bendable mechanism in medical manipulators.
Innovation Solution
A joint ring structure with annular main body and protrusion parts featuring spherical surfaces and engagement holes, allowing for rotational stability and precise movement by connecting centers of spherical surfaces as a rotational axis, while the protrusion parts are made of a harder material for enhanced durability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If a joint ring structure with spherical surfaces and engagement holes is used, then tilting stability and rotational precision are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The joint ring incorporates spherical surfaces on protrusion parts that engage with spherical surfaces in receiving holes of adjacent joint rings. This spherical geometry enables precise rotational movement around a defined axis (line segment connecting centers of spherical surfaces) while maintaining tilting stability, as the spherical contact points naturally constrain movement to rotational motion around the center line.
Solution Approach 2:
The bending mechanism is divided into multiple discrete joint rings arranged in series along the central axis. Each joint ring contains engagement holes and receiving holes positioned at specific locations, allowing independent rotational movement of each segment. This segmentation enables cumulative bending capability while maintaining stability at each joint interface.
2Reliability
If protrusion parts are made of harder material, then durability and resistance to wear are improved, but manufacturing difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The protrusion parts are manufactured from harder material specifically at the spherical surface contact areas, while other portions of the joint ring may use different materials. This local quality enhancement focuses durability improvements where wear occurs (at the spherical engagement surfaces) without requiring the entire joint ring structure to be made from difficult-to-manufacture hard materials.
Solution Approach 2:
The joint ring system employs different materials for different components - protrusion parts use harder materials for durability at contact surfaces, while main body parts may use more ductile or easier-to-form materials. This composite approach optimizes both durability and manufacturability by matching material properties to functional requirements of each component.
Data Source
AI summary
A joint ring includes a main body part and a pair of protrusion parts protruding from a first surface of the main body part in a direction of a central axis thereof and having spherical surfaces on protruding portions. The main body part includes a pair of engagement holes and a pair of receiving holes. The protrusion parts include engagement parts which are configured to be capable of being inserted into the engagement holes. When the joint rings are arranged in the direction of the central axis and the protrusion parts of a first joint ring enter the receiving holes of a second joint ring, the spherical surfaces come into contact with receiving surfaces inside the receiving holes, and the first joint ring and the second joint ring become rotatable relative to each other with a line segment connecting centers of the respective spherical surfaces as a rotational center.