Design of multifunctional compliant forceps for medical application.

Recent advances in Minimally Invasive Surgery, multifunctional instruments are essential to improve the efficiency of the surgical procedure. Surgical instruments with combination of wire and links demonstrate high performance, but fabrication and assembly of the instruments are challenging. This open the way for alternate design, and compliant mechanism is the appropriate choice. Compliant mechanism is the flexible mechanism that transfer loads from one point to another through elastic body deformation. This research paper introduces the novel design of compliant forceps, which can cut and collect tissues. Forceps require very high force to cut the tissues and less force to collect the tissues. The concept is developed with respect to the requirement, where switching of functions can be obtained by applying respective input actuation. The concepts of compliant forceps are converted to the realistic model using parameterisation technique. Structural performance of compliant forceps is investigated through the finite element method (FEM). FEM is used to measure the cutting force and grasping force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]