2021 Faculty Courses School of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering Graduate major in Human Centered Science and Biomedical Engineering
Kinematics and mechanism of medical robotics
- Academic unit or major
- Graduate major in Human Centered Science and Biomedical Engineering
- Instructor(s)
- Toru Omata / Toshio Takayama
- Class Format
- Lecture
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 3-4 Tue
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- HCB.M561
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2021
- Offered quarter
- 1Q
- Syllabus updated
- Jul 10, 2025
- Language
- English
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
Developments of medical devices in medical-engineering collaboration are quite important to meet the contemporary social needs. Especially many robot technologies have been introduced into medical front. Research and development of medical robots become the central core of medical-engineering collaboration. This course presents elemental techniques on kinematics and mechanisms necessary for developing medical robots and introduces development examples of medical robots. Students are expected to learn knowledge and way of thinking useful in the development of medical robots.
Course description and aims
Acquire ability to design new medical robots understanding the followings:
・Understand the current state, types, rolls of medical robots, and advantages and disadvantages of various mechanisms.
・Understand the difficulties in designing medical robots, which is necessary to acquire the ability to cope with the difficulties.
Keywords
medical robot, surgical robot
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
At the end of class, students are given exercise problems related to the lecture as necessary.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Introduction to medical robotics | Understand the current state, types, and rolls of medical robots. |
| Class 2 | Linkage mechanisms I | Understand planar linkage mechanisms for medical robots. |
| Class 3 | Linkage mechanisms II | Understand spacial linkage mechanisms for medical robots. |
| Class 4 | Differential mechanisms | Understand differential mechanisms for medical robots |
| Class 5 | Cable driven mechanisms | Understand cable-driven mechanisms for medical robots |
| Class 6 | Soft actuators | Understand principles and characteristics of soft actuators for medical robots |
| Class 7 | Design examples | Understand the design of medical robots from examples |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
Textbook(s)
None
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Course material will be provided when necessary.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Final exam, report and attendance.
If the final exam cannot be conducted face-to-face, evaluate the score by small tests, reports, etc. as an alternative.
If your report contains inappropriate citations or plagiarism, the score of this subject will be 0 points.
Related courses
- MEC.I211 ： Robot Kinematics
- MEC.H532 ： Kinematic Analysis and Synthesis of Robots
Prerequisites
Students must have basic knowledge of mechanics in undergraduate level. The focus of this course is NOT on the outline of medical robotics but on technical issues on mechanical engineering for medical robots.