A haptic feedback controller for robotic minimally invasive surgery

• Main Author: Chioson, Francheska B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Haptic devices; Robotics in medicine; Feedback control systems; Manufacturing
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/7049
• Institution: De La Salle University

Haptics refers to the perception feedback through the sense of touch. In laparoscopic surgery, haptics helps surgeons measure the force exerted between the surgical tool and tissue. Haptic feedback can improve the surgeon’s accuracy, hand-eye coordination and dexterity. In minimally invasive surgery (MIS), haptics assists surgeons in completing complex surgical tasks such as suturing and knot tying. In robotic minimally invasive surgery (RMIS), haptic feedback has yet to be integrated in commercial systems. The provision of haptics during laparoscopic surgery provides surgeons an intuitive feel inside the patient. MIS is done in vivo where surgeons rely on their tool to determine how much force is exerted or needed for a surgical task. The unconscious adaption of the force exerted on an object is known as “natural haptic feedback”. For a surgeon adept with MIS, the interaction between the tool to tissue and tool to surgeon allows for an indirect force reflection. As current surgical methods are inclining toward robotic surgery, the integration of haptic feedback is crucial. Although RMIS provides promising developments in terms of fatigue and dexterity to name a few, robot-assisted interventions, without touch-sensing, still limits the information sent back to the surgeon. As such, this study aims to develop a 1 DOF haptic feedback system for RMIS. The objective of the research is to provide and display the tool to tissue interaction of the laparoscopic instrument. The development of the haptic feedback system is done through the direct force reflection control system of a bilateral teleoperation architecture.