Optimal Design of Smart Tools for Minimally Invasive Surgery

1. Abstract A new integrated grasping tool for minimally invasive surgery has been designed consisting of two piezoelectric bimorph actuators. To improve the force and deflection performance of the bimorphs, a segmented design with varying piezoelectric layer thicknesses is proposed, and an optimization procedure developed for sizing the section thicknesses. Design of experiments and response surface methodologies were used in order to model the design space and the sequential quadratic programming method was used to perform the optimization. Design objectives include maximum tip deflection, maximum gripping force, and maximum work available at the tip. By allowing the thickness of the piezoelectric layers of the bimorph to vary as well as the voltage applied to each segment, optimum thickness configurations were determined that led to increased bimorph gripper performance.