Control Architecture and experimental validation of a Novel Surgical Robotic Instrument

Doina Pisla; Ionut Zima; Calin Vaida; Andrei Cailean; Marius Miclaus; Adrian Pisla; Andrei Caprariu; Vasile Bulbucan

cs.ROApr 7, 2026

Control Architecture and experimental validation of a Novel Surgical Robotic Instrument

Authors: Doina Pisla, Ionut Zima, Calin Vaida, Andrei Cailean, Marius Miclaus, Adrian Pisla, Andrei Caprariu, Vasile Bulbucan,

Organizations: CESTER · CESTER, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, European University of Technology, EU, Technical Sciences Academy of Romania, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Romania · CESTER, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, European University of Technology, EU, Cluj-Napoca, Romania · LS2N - équipe RoMas, LS2N ·

Abstract

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) reduces patient trauma and shortens recovery time; however, conventional laparoscopic instruments remain constrained by limited range of movements. This work presents the control architecture of a 4-DOF flexible laparoscopic instrument integrating distal bending, independent distal head rotation, shaft rotation, and a gripper, while maintaining a 10 mm diameter compatible with standard trocars. The actuation unit and SpaceMouse teleoperation are implemented on Raspberry Pi 5 with Motoron controllers. An analytical scissor-linkage model is derived and parameterized. The predicted jaw opening corresponds to CAD measurements (MAE 0.13{\textdegree}) and OptiTrack motion capture (MAE 1.43{\textdegree}). Integration with the ATHENA parallel robot is validated through a simulated pancreatic surgery procedure.

Surgical Robotics

Surgical robotics develops robotic tools and systems for minimally invasive, image-guided, and microsurgical procedures.

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An Open-Source Robotics Research Platform for Autonomous Laparoscopic Surgery

Ariel Rodriguez, Lorenzo Mazza, Martin Lelis, Rayan Younis+3

Department of Translational Surgical Oncology, NCT/UCC Dresden, a partnership between DKFZ, MF UKD, TUD, HZDR Dresden, Germany · Cluster of Excellence-CeTI, TUD, Germany · Department of Visceral, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, TUD, Germany

Laparoscopic Surgery Surgical Robotics Robotic Control Healthcare Robotics

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Autonomous robot-assisted surgery demands reliable, high-precision platforms that strictly adhere to the safety and kinematic constraints of minimally invasive procedures. Existing research platforms, primarily based on the da Vinci Research Kit, suffer from cable-driven mechanical limitations that degrade state-space consistency and hinder the downstream training of reliable autonomous policies. We present an open-source, robot-agnostic Remote Center of Motion (RCM) controller based on a closed-form analytical velocity solver that enforces the trocar constraint deterministically without iterative optimization. The controller operates in Cartesian space, enabling any industrial manipulator to function as a surgical robot. We provide implementations for the UR5e and Franka Emika Panda manipulators, and integrate stereoscopic 3D perception. We integrate the robot control into a full-stack ROS-based surgical robotics platform supporting teleoperation, demonstration recording, and deployment of learned policies via a decoupled server-client architecture. We validate the system on a bowel grasping and retraction task across phantom, ex vivo, and in vivo porcine laparoscopic procedures. RCM deviations remain sub-millimeter across all conditions, and trajectory smoothness metrics (SPARC, LDLJ) are comparable to expert demonstrations from the JIGSAWS benchmark recorded on the da Vinci system. These results demonstrate that the platform provides the precision and robustness required for teleoperation, data collection and autonomous policy deployment in realistic surgical scenarios.

Abstract

Surgical Robotics

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