Surgical instruments should be as sterile as possible. On the other hand, robots are hard to sterilize, for example due to lubricants, abrasions, and the like.
Accordingly, a robot with an adapter socket is known from WO 2009/061915 A2, with an adapter of a sterile cover being fastened thereat which encompasses the robot. An instrument is fastened at the sterile side, facing away from the robot, with its end effector being actuated by pulleys inside the instrument shaft.
For this purpose, disks which are rotationally supported side-by-side in the sterile adapter are coupled to counter disks, which are integrated in the robot arm. The rotary drives for actuating the counter disks are arranged in the robot base; the drive moments are transmitted via pulleys into the robot arm, so that the instrument, not having a drive of its own, can easily be manipulated.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds