Development of a Miniaturized Bedside Robotic Wrist with Multifunctional Movement Capabilities: An Analysis Based on a Simulation Environment

Bedside robots equipped with medical devices can be effective in assisting physicians to perform specific medical tasks on mobile medical vehicles via remote operation. However, the major challenges are to make the robot small and dexterous enough to meet the clinical requirements and fit into the small space of the mobile medical vehicle. In this paper, we propose a miniaturized bedside robotic wrist based on a 6-RSU parallel mechanism with multifunctional motion capabilities. The robotic wrist can be equipped with various medical instruments, including but not limited to ultrasound probes, biopsy needles and endoscopes. To meet different clinical needs, the motion mode of the robotic wrist can be switched between decoupled and remote center of motion. To verify the effectiveness of the design, the kinematic model of the robotic wrist for two motion modes was established and different simulation studies were performed. The experimental results show that the robotic wrist has a favorable working performance to be deployed onto mobile medical vehicles, demonstrating its promising application prospects.

I. Introduction

Mobile medical vehicles are specially designed medical clinics that use integrated technology to offer healthcare to a wider population. As a mobile clinic, different kinds of diagnostic equipment, circulatory equipment, and respiratory equipment can be extensively deployed [1]. More recently, the deployment of medical robots in mobile healthcare platforms has gained attention in the field. As an example, MGI Tech Co., Ltd. has proposed an ultrasound robot mobile vehicle, which utilises a convenient mobile intelligent platform system, combined with a remote ultrasound robot, to enable anytime, anywhere medical ultrasound diagnosis and sample collection and management [2]. As in the above case, deploying robots on mobile medical vehicles can help decentralise many diagnostic and treatment procedures that rely on the experience of doctors to the primary level through tele-operation. However, one of the major challenges is to make the robot small and dexterous enough to meet the clinical requirements and fit into the small space of the mobile medical vehicle. In this paper, we refer to this type of device as bedside robotic wrist (BRW).