Development of Integrated Leader Controller for Forceps/Retractor Manipulation in Single-Port Water-Filled Laparo-Endoscopic Surgery

Single-port water-filled laparo-endoscopic surgery (WaFLES) is a surgical procedure used for treatment in an environment filled with isotonic water in the abdominal cavity under a single-port condition. In this study, we developed two leader controllers for the forceps manipulator and retractor to generate and maintain a surgical workspace for a single-port WaFLES support robot. The development of the specific controller for each device increased the operation time and complicated the motion, such as regripping. We integrated the two functions as a controller to prevent the problem above. We performed grasping and retracting tasks in the virtual surgical workspace to evaluate the proposed controller. Based on the experimental results, we clarified the effect on the operation time by a different mechanism and observed that arranging the switch decreased the operation time. In addition, one of the proposed leader controllers improved operability in terms of operation time during selection and switching from the retractor to the forceps manipulator. However, the arrangement of the switch could adversely affect controller operability when switching from a simple operation (requiring only position control during retractor operation) to a complex operation (requiring both position and posture control during forceps operation). Furthermore, manipulation errors were observed using either of the proposed controllers. Therefore, the sensing procedure of the controller should be improved by addressing these errors in software and hardware.