In laparoscopic surgeries, robotic systems commonly use trocar fixation to achieve remote center motion (RCM). However, this fixation occupies the surgeon's operational space and limits surgical flexibility. It is essential to ensure adequate workspace while maintaining RCM to enhance procedural efficiency and safety. This paper introduces a novel approach to preserve RCM without relying on trocar fixation. The proposed method integrates a six-degree-of-freedom robotic arm with a dual end-effector system, employing tool coordinate storage and remote center point definition to achieve precise four- degree-of-freedom RCM motion control. To validate this method, an experimental setup with an optical tracking system was utilized to measure and calibrate the remote center position. The results indicate that the robot maintained RCM with mean positional errors of 0.672, 0.318, and 0.704 mm along the x, y, and z axes, respectively, yielding a three-dimensional mean error of 1.136 mm. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the method in maintaining RCM while maximizing surgical workspace and operational flexibility.

This paper proposes a new rotary welding torch with a ball-jointed mechanical seal structure that simultaneously realizes the enclosure of CO₂ gas, the energization of welding current, and the insulation for system protection. In order to effectively compare the operation mechanism of the proposed device with the conventional rotary welding torch, a schematic technique is introduced to clearly visualize the operation and connection structure of the model. The kinematic state and constraint degrees of freedom of the tool are clearly shown, and it is easy to distinguish between the two designs that use different component parts and connection structures but result in the same final motion. In addition, the four dynamic characteristics of a rotary torch operating at 20 Hz (driving torque, vibration reaction force, natural frequency, and inertial mismatch) were analyzed to demonstrate superior performance to conventional products. The welding test showed that the tool normally operated even in a harsh welding environment, verifying its applicability in the field.

This paper presents a distortion compensation algorithm for cable-driven master devices. Such device has four string pots at four corners of a frame. Four cables are tied from the four corners to the center holder. When the central holder, which is a haptic grip, moves, lengths of the four cables will change. From the four cable lengths, the spatial position of the haptic grip can be estimated using triangulation. In this case, distortion such as barrel image of the image field occurs when estimating a position with an offset parallel to the plane in which the four string pots are located. The closer to the corner, the smaller the position estimate value is than the true value. After distortion phenomenon is modeled by projecting onto the ellipsoid, the position in the vertical direction of the cable plane is compensated by the corresponding value and flattened. The mean error in the x-direction position was improved by 91% from 0.7833±0.8381 mm to -0.0709±0.4341 mm. This cable-driven master device can be used as a haptic device for operating a surgical robot.

This paper presents gain optimization for a controller of a 6- DOF underwater robot with tilting thrusters. PID control system with anti-windup technique is designed to stabilize the hovering motion of the robot. The controller comprises thrust vector decomposition to overcome nonlinearity of the thrust vector and also includes an algorithm to compensate for saturation of thrusters. A total of 24 control gains should be tuned in this controller, and gain optimization is performed according to four system errors using genetic algorithm. First, 18 PID control gains were optimized and then 6 gains were optimized to affect anti-windup. As a result, control gains optimized by the integral absolute error showed the best performance, and it is verified that tracking error in position and orientation of the robot were reduced by 29.38% compared with initial gains.

This paper presents control performance improvement by modifying center of gravity (COG) of an underwater robotic platform. To reduce the oscillation or to increase the positioning accuracy, it is important to accurately know the COG of an underwater robotic platform. The COG is determined by the three measured tilting angles of the platform in different postures. The tilting angle is measured while the platform is hanged by two strings. Using coordinate transformation, the plane of intersection is defined from the angle of the platform and the position of the string. The COG of the robotic platform is directly calculated by the intersected point in three defined planes. The measured COG is implemented to the control algorithm that is pre-designed in the previous research, and the empirical result on tilting gives 48.26% improved oscillation performance comparing to the oscillation result with the ideal COG position.

This paper presents gain optimization of a 6-DOF underwater robotic platform with 4 rotatable thrusters. To stabilize the 6-DOF motion of the underwater robotic platform, a back-stepping controller is designed with 6 proportional gains and 6 derivative gains. The 12 gains of the backstepping controller are optimized to decrease settling time in step response in 6-DOF motion independently. Stability criterion and overshoots are used as a constraint of the optimization problem. Trust-region algorithm and hybrid Taguchi-Random order Coordinate search algorithm are used to determine the optimal parameters, and the results by two methods are analyzed. Additionally, the resulting controller shows improved performance under disturbances.

In this paper, we propose an optimal design for starfish capturing manipulator module with fourbar linkage mechanism. A tool link with compliance is attached on the four-bar linkage, and the tool repeats detaching starfish from the ground and putting it into the storage box. Since the tool is not rigid and the manipulator is operating underwater, the trajectory of the tool tip is determined by its dynamics as well as kinematics. We analyzed the trajectory of the manipulator tool tip by quasi-static analysis considering both kinematics and dynamics. In optimization, the lengths of each link and the tool stiffness are considered as control variables. To maximize the capturing ability, capturing stroke of the four-bar manipulator trajectory is maximized. Reaction force and reaction moment, and other kinematic constraints were considered as inequality constraints.

Redundant actuated parallel kinematic machines (PKMs) have been widely researched to increase stiffness of PKMs. This paper presents theoretical analyses on the stiffness of nonredundant and redundant actuated PKM. Stiffness of each mechanism is defined by summation of actuator and structural stiffness; the actuator stiffness is determined from displacements of actuators, and the structural stiffness is determined from deformations of links by external forces. Calculated actuator and structural stiffness of non-redundant PKM show same distribution in entire workspace. On the contrary, the actuator and the structural stiffness of a redundant PKM has very different distribution in the workspace; so, we conclude the structural stiffness of redundant PKM should be considered to design the redundant PKM. The results can be used to design and analyze non-redundant and redundant PKMs.

Starfish are a critical problem for fishermen since they eat every farming product including shellfish. The number of starfish is increasing dramatically because they have no natural enemy underwater. We consider the concept of capturing starfish using a semi-autonomous robot. A new underwater robot design to capture starfish is proposed using cooperation between humans and the robot. A requirements list for the robot is developed and two conceptual designs are proposed. Each robot is designed as a modular platform. The kinematic and dynamic performance of each robot is analyzed and compared. This study is a starting point for developing a starfish capture robot and designing underwater robots for other applications. In the near future, a prototype will be assembled and tested in a marine environment.