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Robot-assisted surgery provides the surgeons with new tools to perform sophisticated surgical operations in a minimally
invasive manner. Small robotic end-effectors at the tip of the surgical forceps are the key advantage of robotic surgery
over laparoscopic surgery and any improvement on the design of these small robots can significantly improve the overall
functionality of the surgical robots. In this sense, novel bio-compatible electro-active polymeric actuators can improve
the design and functionality of these robotic end-effectors particularly by introducing smaller and more flexible robotic
tools. Here, we introduce the applications of IPMCs as flexible actuators with embedded tactile and force feedback
sensors in minimally-invasive robotic surgery. A new design for the robotic manipulation of the organs is presented in
which a two dimensional IPMC actuator is replaced with the rigid robotic distal tip. It is shown that with a customized
design, IPMC actuators maintain the required dexterity for two-dimensional bending of robotic distal tip. The overall
design of the robot could be considered as a hybrid robot with the combination of rigid robotic links and flexible IPMC
actuator with two degrees of freedom. On the other hand with the current robotic distal tips, no tactile force feedback is
available during surgery and the surgeons rely solely on vision feedback. With the proposed design of actuator, the
IPMC based distal tip could be used to deliver force feedback data by using an embedded IPMC tactile sensor. Design
considerations, kinematics and chemo-electro-mechanical model of the proposed actuator is presented.
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