3D Printed Single Incision Laparoscopic Manipulator System Adapted to the Required Forces in Laparoscopic Surgery 3D printing in medical technology is mainly used to produce customized devices for surgical planning or surgical guides and templates. However, for laparoscopic systems, 3D printing is hardly used. A challenge is the transmission of the necessary forces required in laparoscopic surgery.We designed and manufactured a 3D printed customizable manipulator system for Single Incision Laparoscopic Surgery (SILS), fulfilling the forcerelated requirements in laparoscopic surgery.The Single Incision Laparoscopic Manipulator System can apply forces at its tip up to 5.6 N with acceptable operating forces not exceeding 30 N. We showed the functionality of the manipulator system in a manipulation experiment in comparison to standard SILS instruments.

Design Strategy for a Surgical Manipulator based on a Compliant Mechanism : Rigidity and Range of Motion: Finding the Optimized Balance Compliant mechanisms have drawn the attention recently in developing surgical robotic manipulators for minimally invasive surgery (MIS) owing to their capabilities in making miniaturized, simple, dexterous mechanical structures. Robotically assisted MIS demands instruments with higher precision, higher output force and a higher range of motion (ROM) for better performances. On the other hand, because of the behaviour of the elastic elements, compromising these factors is challenging. In a compliant mechanism, the rigidity of the elastic element determines the precision and output force. In this paper, we study the behaviour of rigidity and the ROM of elastic elements using previously developed surgical robotic forceps based on a compliant mechanism. To tackle this problem, we studied the variation of ROM of the compliant mechanism at different rigidity values of the compliant structure by changing its thickness. The results showed the linear relationship between the ROM and the rigidity of a compliant mechanical manipulator, suggesting the optimized balance point in this tradeoff.