Development of a 3-DOF Serially Configured Master Manipulator for Laparoscopic Exploration

This paper presents a serially configured 3-DOF master manipulator designed for laparoscopic exploration, intended to control a slave manipulator within a surgical robotic system. The master manipulator integrates servo motors as force feedback units, resulting in a compact and easily assembled structure. The serial configuration enhances operational intuitiveness and shortens the learning curve for operators. Kinematic and Jacobian analyses of the proposed master manipulator are presented in this paper. The workspace experiments revealed a Y-axis rotational range of 161.44° and a Z-axis rotational range of 144.33°, along with a translational range of 108.31mm. Furthermore, an experiment for the laparoscopic simulated exploration was conducted, demonstrating that the proposed master manipulator successfully met the operational requirements for controlling the slave manipulator during laparoscopic exploration.