Design of Compliant Minimally Invasive Biomedical Instruments Using the Inverse Finite Element Method

ALEJANDRO ALBANESI; VICTOR FACHINOTTI; MARTÍN PUCHETA

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Congreso; MECOM 2010; 2010

AMCA - Asociación Argentina de Mecánica Computacional

The motivation of this work is to introduce the benefits of inverse finite element methods in the design and development of compliant biomedical tools, focused in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) procedures in particular. MIS techniques have revolutionized surgery by allowing operations to be conducted trough incisions ranging from a few millimeters to centimeters, and surgical instruments based on compliant mechanisms offer a number of potential advantages over traditional instruments. We present here a new method to design compliant mechanisms based in an inverse finite element beam model with lower computational costs compared to classic design methods and that is specially suited for problems where an object has to be manipulated by the mechanism with a prescribed shape and contact force, resulting in an even distribution of the contact pressure between the mechanism and the object