Implementing force-feedback in a telesurgery environment, using parameter estimation

During minimal invasive telesurgery with surgical robots, surgeons rely on their vision to determine the forces applied to tissue. Using an end-effector from da Vinci Surgical Systems a force-feedback control system has been developed, in order to reduce the unnecessary forces applied by the surgeon. To avoid adding any additional hardware, the forces in the system have been estimated on the basis of the existing actuators, using parameter estimation techniques. The inevitable time-delays in the network, which imposes challenges in control design, are also estimated and compensated for within the control design. During tests, it has been shown that it is possible to implement a distributed network controller, which is stable over a range of typical time-delays. This shows, that the applied parameter estimation technique is indeed a viable solution for implementing force-feedback in telesurgery.