Tissue characterization in medical robotics

The lack of haptic feedback has negatively affected the surgeon´s ability to palpate and diagnose tissue and differentiate its stiffness during surgical operations with commercially available robotic assisted surgical systems. A modular surgical instrument capable of non-invasive measurement of sideways tip/tissue interaction forces for direct application in robotic assisted minimally invasive surgery systems is presented in this paper. The proposed force measurement technique enables the actual non-invasive measurement of the sideways interaction forces at the tip jaws. The instrument has two actuation degrees of freedom (DOF) for the tip operation and grasping orientation. The tip functionality type (e.g., grasping, cutting, and dissecting) can also be changed quickly and easily. Experiments were conducted to evaluate functionalities of the proposed instrument in palpating tissues. The results are presented and analysed here that verify the capability of the proposed instrument in accurately measuring lateral tip/tissue interaction forces.