Kinematic and Ergonomic Design of a Robotic Arm for Precision Laparoscopic Surgery

TL;DR

The paper addresses precision and surgeon ergonomics in robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery by designing a 7-DOF serial robotic arm with a software-enforced remote center of motion and human-centered ergonomics, evaluated in a simulated targeting task against manual laparoscopy. The approach combines kinematic enhancements (RCM enforcement, extra DOFs, tremor filtering, motion scaling) with ergonomic optimization (compact footprint, seated console, staff-friendly geometry). Results show approximately $50\%$ improvement in targeting accuracy ($3.8\text{ mm} ightarrow 1.9\text{ mm}$) and about $33\%$ faster task completion ($60.1\text{ s} ightarrow 39.8\text{ s}$), along with a reduction in self-reported discomfort from $6.6$ to $2.3$ on a 0–10 scale, indicating substantial benefits from the design choices. The findings support the value of integrating kinematic optimization and ergonomic design in next-generation robotic surgical systems and point toward future work incorporating haptic feedback and AR guidance to further enhance performance and safety.

Abstract

Robotic assistance in minimally invasive surgery can greatly enhance surgical precision and reduce surgeon fatigue. This paper presents a focused investigation on the kinematic and ergonomic design principles for a laparoscopic surgical robotic arm aimed at high-precision tasks. We propose a 7-degree-of-freedom (7-DOF) robotic arm system that incorporates a remote center of motion (RCM) at the instrument insertion point and ergonomic considerations to improve surgeon interaction. The design is implemented on a general-purpose robotic platform, and a series of simulated surgical tasks were performed to evaluate targeting accuracy, task efficiency, and surgeon comfort compared to conventional manual laparoscopy. Experimental results demonstrate that the optimized robotic design achieves significantly improved targeting accuracy (error reduced by over 50%) and shorter task completion times, while substantially lowering operator muscle strain and discomfort. These findings validate the importance of kinematic optimization (such as added articulations and tremor filtering) and human-centered ergonomic design in enhancing the performance of robot-assisted surgery. The insights from this work can guide the development of next-generation surgical robots that improve surgical outcomes and ergonomics for the operating team.

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: Targeting error by joint.
• Figure 2: Performance summary (mean ± SD) for targeting error, completion time, and discomfort across manual and robotic conditions..
• Figure 3: Box plot of targeting error for manual laparoscopic vs robotic-assisted conditions. The robotic system yielded consistently lower errors (median shown by horizontal line in each box) and less variability among attempts. Outliers (dots) in the manual group indicate occasional large errors when the target was difficult to reach, whereas the robotic group shows no extreme outliers.
• Figure 4: Histogram of the distribution of targeting errors in both conditions.
• Figure 5: Histogram of targeting error per attempt under each condition