Force Feedback for Remote Palpation in Robotic Surgery

 

At the University of Pennsylvania GRASP Haptics Lab, I designed and built a prototype system to apply force feedback for palpation in robotic surgery. By attaching a small force sensor like the BioTac finger sensor to the end of a robotic surgery instrument, stiffness information could be obtained from tissues at the surgical site. My device used a DC motor and mechanical linkage to remotely apply the same forces to the user's finger. In this way, we hoped that the surgeon would be able to feel for tumors in robotic surgery.