Robots taking over medical technology

Powerful drive technology for robotics

Robots can help perform parallel processes and also offer high accuracy as well as reliability with fatiguing or repetitive work. Properties that are especially valuable for medical technology.

To move something, robots need drives that satisfy various requirements. What nearly all applications have in common is the limited installation space and the requirement for compact as well as lightweight drive units. High torques and precision, high dynamics and maximum power density are also required. Especially when interacting with human colleagues, drives must work quietly so as not to disturb concentration. Furthermore, connectivity should be an option so that they can reliably connect to and exchange information with other components in the robot drive system. Special applications call for insensitivity to magnetic fields, vacuum resistance or low energy consumption for mobile, battery-operated use. Self-locking drives or drives with extremely small backlash may also be required. Elsewhere, the possibility of sterilizing the drives is essential. In short: The requirements are diverse and the standards high. The experts at FAULHABER can look back on many years of practical experience and have played a role in a wide range of solutions.

Field of application: the operating room

Surgical robots have become indispensable. There are today already more than 70 companies that offer systems for various procedures, such as on the spinal column, the knee, in the abdomen, in neurosurgery, in the ear, nose and throat area, during biopsies, in gynecology and urology or even in operations on the heart. What makes the use of robots in the OR attractive is obvious: a robot does not become fatigued, offers maximum precision and speed as well as optimum ergonomics. Experts believe that they will revolutionize work in the OR: The surgeon then controls the robot arms used for the procedure on the operating table from an OR console via joysticks. Highly dynamic, precise drive systems are needed for this application case.

The range of systems and concepts is considerable. The familiar types of robots are found in operating rooms depending on use and on the operation that is to be performed, especially articulated robots, SCARA robots, hexapod and tripod robots as well as the so-called snake robots. With this last type, hoists and rollers or toothed belts are often used to transfer the movement from the drives. Small backlash and precise control have top priority.

Practical solutions through years of experience

The more robot-supported operations that are performed in various disciplines, the more the need for drive systems increases. Thanks to ironless winding technology and flat speed-torque curve, FAULHABER offers the necessary properties, such as exact positioning and speed control. With an immense range of innovative miniature and micro drive technology and the modularly designed system, individually tailored solutions consisting of drive, gearhead unit and motion controller can be assembled as well as modified for special requirements.

But there are also other applications for high-performance drives in the OR: During general anesthesia, the patient is artificially ventilated. Operating in the turbine unit of the ventilator is a brushless DC-motor with a diameter of just 24 millimeters. The used drive is not only very fast and quiet over the entire speed range but is also very dynamic. This makes nearly natural ventilation possible – both for adults as well as for children and newborns.

Medical use outside of the OR

The uses for microdrives in medical technology go beyond robot-supported surgical procedures. Drives are also used, for example, in implantable heart pumps, surgical hand tools, in cosmetics and in medical imaging and processing. Powerful motor families like the BX4 or BP4 from FAULHABER as well as the BXT series can be flexibly adapted to demanding robotic applications through the use of additional components such as various gearheads, optical, magnetic or absolute encoders as well as speed or motion controllers.