Design and implementation of multifunctional robotic arm and grippers for robotic-laparoscopic surgery and interventional radiology applications

In this thesis entitled "DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF MULTIFUNCTIONAL ROBOTIC ARM AND GRIPPERS FOR ROBOTIC-LAPAROSCOPIC SURGERY AND INTERVENTIONAL RADIOLOGY APPLICATIONS" , the intend was to design grippers and a robotic arm controlled by Nickel-Titanium Alloy materials known as Nitinol, which can be used in medical interventional areas with various gripper designs mounted onto the robotic arm. Many actuation applications and their various control mechanism have been encountered in the literature regarding the use of these materials. In addition, a variety of gripping mechanisms designed for medical and industrial applications have been investigated. In this thesis, eight different grippers were developed performing micro movements by nitinol-based mechanisms to generate grasping, gripping , lifting, and releasing functions. Additionally a robotic arm with pitch and yaw degree of freedom was developed to hold these gripper designs. The grippers are diversified according to their holding mechanism and the properties of the production material utilized during production of the system. These grippers are controlled remotely and wirelessly together with the robotic arm on which they are mounted. Different from the sensor systems found in the literature, the variables related to the amount of jaws clearance, opening-closing times and speeds for gripper jaws and similarly angular position and speed of the robotic arm were obtained with a Matlab based Image Processing application. All gripping systems were experimented under different supply voltage, Pulse Width Modulation duty cyle and frequency signal condiitons. According to the performance data obtained, each gripper design was assesed in terms deficiencies, limits and advantages of the system. In light of the inferences derived, the path to be followed in later studies has been determined. July 2020 Özgür Yurtsever