An interchangeable surgical instrument system with application to supervised automation of multilateral tumor resection

Many surgical procedures require a sequence of different end-effectors but switching tools for robot-assisted minimally-invasive surgery (RMIS) requires time-consuming removal and replacement through the trocar port. We present an interchangeable instrument system that can be contained within the body cavity. It is based on a novel mounting mechanism compatible with a standard RMIS gripper and a tool-guide and sleeve to facilitate automated instrument switching. Experiments suggest that an Intuitive Surgical system using these interchangeable instruments can perform a multi-step tumor resection procedure that uses a novel haptic probe to localize the tumor, standard scalpel to expose the tumor, standard grippers to extract the subcutaneous tumor, and a fluid injection tool to seal the wound. Design details and video are available at: http://berkeleyautomation.github.io/surgicaltools.