ETD

• additive manufacturing
• compliant mechanism
• minimally invasive surgery
• origami
• surgical forceps
• surgical tools

The evolution of surgery, from an open-access to a Minimally Invasive approach, has significantly enhanced healthcare and minimized patient impact.
The advantages of Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) include smaller incisions, improved outcomes and faster recovery for the patient. However, challenges persist in surgical instruments' efficiency and accessibility due to their high production costs, difficulty of miniaturization and sterilization and mechanical drawbacks due to the wear of the small components.
The art of origami offers a promising way to address these challenges. The versatility of origami structures allows for compliant joints and lightweight, cheaper, and compact devices.
This work aimed to incorporate origami principles in developing innovative surgical forceps for MIS.
The here presented approach was combining an origami-inspired design with the additive manufacturing method. The materials used were TPU for the compliant hinges and PETG and resin VisiJet® M3 Crystal for the rigid structure and jaws. Then, the prototype was manually assembled.
The gripper was characterized by performing mechanical tests, in order to evaluate its functionality, durability, and finally its performance in terms of applied force.
This thesis was carried out within the SPOKE 9 THE PNRR project at the "BioRobotic Institute".