Skip to main content
Log in

Soft sensing and haptics for medical procedures

  • Comment
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Materials

View current issue Sign up to alerts

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) lacks sufficient haptic feedback to the surgeon due to the length and flexibility of surgical tools. This haptic disconnect is exacerbated in robotic-MIS, which utilizes tele-operation to control surgical tools. Tactile sensation in MIS and robotic-MIS can be restored in a safe and conformable manner through soft sensors and soft haptic feedback devices.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1: Soft sensors and soft haptic systems for MIS and R-MIS.

References

  1. Othman, W. et al. Tactile sensing for minimally invasive surgery: conventional methods and potential emerging tactile technologies. Front. Robot. AI 8, 705662 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Runciman, M., Darzi, A. & Mylonas, G. P. Soft robotics in minimally invasive surgery. Soft Robot. 6, 423–443 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. McCandless, M., Gerald, A., Carroll, A., Aihara, H. & Russo, S. A soft robotic sleeve for safer colonoscopy procedures. IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett. 6, 5292–5299 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Li, Y. et al. Optical-waveguide based tactile sensing for surgical instruments of minimally invasive surgery. Front. Robot. AI 8, 773166 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Avery, J., Shulakova, D., Runciman, M., Mylonas, G. P. & Darzi, A. Tactile sensor for minimally invasive surgery using electrical impedance tomography. IEEE Trans. Med. Robot. Bionics 2, 561–564 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Gerald, A. et al. A soft robotic haptic feedback glove for colonoscopy procedures. In 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 583–590 (IEEE, 2022).

  7. Abiri, A. et al. Multi-modal haptic feedback for grip force reduction in robotic surgery. Sci. Rep. 9, 5016 (2019).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Li, M. et al. Multi-fingered haptic palpation utilizing granular jamming stiffness feedback actuators. Smart Mater. Struct. 23, 095007 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Chen, S., Chen, Y., Yang, J., Han, T. & Yao, S. Skin-integrated stretchable actuators toward skin-compatible haptic feedback and closed-loop human-machine interactions. npj Flex. Electron. 7, 1 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Aydin, M. et al. Novel soft haptic biofeedback — pilot study on postural balance and proprioception. Sensors 22, 3779 (2022).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sheila Russo.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gerald, A., Russo, S. Soft sensing and haptics for medical procedures. Nat Rev Mater 9, 86–88 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-024-00653-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-024-00653-6

  • Springer Nature Limited

Navigation