Kirigami-Based Disposable Laparoscopic Instruments Under Direct Surgeon Control

In this paper, we present a method for fabricating inexpensive, disposable, articulated instruments for minimally invasive surgery based on Japanese paper arts. Building on the literature covering the kinematics of origami, we introduce an articulated instrument design with antagonistic tendon actuation. A general method for achieving a fixed motion scaling ratio in these types of systems is also presented. Kinematic simulations and prototyping demonstrate feasibility of this concept.