The kinematics analysis and simulation of remote center of motion (RCM) are very crucial issues for minimally invasive surgical robots. RCM increases the working space of surgical instruments and improves the flexibility of surgical operations. In this paper, a novel single-hole minimally invasive surgical robot suspension arm configuration is proposed by analyzing the constraints of RCM, which has 6 degrees of freedom, and a corresponding RCM algorithm is designed based on 3D force dragging. External force is applied to the 3D force sensor installed at the end of the robotic arm, and the algorithm is applied to achieve the RCM of the surgical instrument. The designed simulation experiments evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of the algorithm. Compared with independently designing RCM mechanism, it is simpler and more general that the method of implementing RCM through kinematic constraints.

This study is published in 17th IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, ICMA 2020.