In the last decade, surgical advances have focused on techniques to minimize the invasiveness of such operations in order to reduce the resulting trauma, such as advances in laparoscopic techniques [1]. Current promising approaches are developed in robotic surgery for reducing access trauma using laparo-endoscopic single site surgery [2]. In these cases, the robotic manipulators are actuated through on-board motors. However, the performance of the motors that can fit through the small (20 mm) incision is limited.
In one of the most recent studies, the authors in Ref. [3] proposed a novel approach called local magnetic actuation (LMA) to transfer mechanical power across the abdominal wall by magnetic coupling which eliminates the need for embedded actuators and wired connections. As shown in Fig. 1, LMA is composed of an anchoring unit to support the instrument during surgery and an actuation unit to transfer...