Active Microvibration Control System Using Magnetostrictive Actuator for Surgical Microscope of Suspension Type

It has been a problem in some hospitals that operations using surgical microscopes of suspension type become more difficult due to microvibrations of the microscopes caused by human walks and building equipment such as air conditioning machines. For a practical solution to it, an active microvibration control system was developed, in which magnetostrictive actuators were used because of their large stiffness. A control law based on a model matching method was used to control of microvibrations of the microscopes having various dynamic characteristics corresponding to their attitudes. Tests showed that the microvibration control system using the control law was effective. Furthermore an active-passive switching law was developed to manage large vibrations of the microscopes due to doctors handling of them. Tests showed that the microvibration control system was effective and reliable enough for real application.