Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Grasper having tactile sensing function using acoustic reflection for laparoscopic surgery

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose:

In current minimally invasive surgery techniques, the tactile information available to the surgeon is limited. Improving tactile sensation could enhance the operability of surgical instruments. Considering surgical applications, requirements such as having electrical safety, a simple structure, and sterilization capability should be considered. The current study sought to develop a grasper that can measure grasping force at the tip, based on a previously proposed tactile sensing method using acoustic reflection. This method can satisfy the requirements for surgical applications because it has no electrical element within the part that is inserted into the patient’s body.

Methods:

We integrated our acoustic tactile sensing method into a conventional grasping forceps instrument. We designed the instrument so that acoustic cavities within a grasping arm and a fork sleeve were connected by a small cavity in a pivoting joint. In this design, when the angle between the two grasping arms changes during grasping, the total length and local curvature of the acoustic cavity remain unchanged. Thus, the grasping force can be measured regardless of the orientation of the grasping arm.

Results:

We developed a prototype sensorized grasper based on our proposed design. Fundamental tests revealed that sensor output increased with increasing contact force applied to the grasping arm, and the angle of the grasping arm did not significantly affect the sensor output. Moreover, the results of a grasping test, in which objects with different softness characteristics were held by the grasper, revealed that the grasping force could be appropriately adjusted to handle different objects on the basis of sensor output.

Conclusions:

Experimental results demonstrated that the prototype grasper can measure grasping force, enabling safe and stable grasping.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

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

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Semere W, Kitagawa M, Okamura AM (2004) Teleoperation with sensor/actuator asymmetry: task performance with partial force feedback. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international symposium on haptic interfaces for virtual environment and teleoperator systems. doi:10.1109/HAPTIC.2004.1287186

  2. Wagner CR, Stylopoulos N, Howe RD (2002) The role of force feedback in surgery: analysis of blunt dissection. In: Proceedings of the IEEE symposium on haptic interfaces for virtual environment and teleoperator systems. doi:10.1109/HAPTIC.2002.998943

  3. Braun EU, Mayer H, Knoll A, Lange R, Bauernschmitt R (2008) The must-have in robotic heart surgery: haptic feedback. In: Bozovic V (ed) Medical robotics. I-Tech Education and Publishing, Rijeka, pp 9–20

    Google Scholar 

  4. Puangmali P, Althoefer K, Seneviratne LD, Murphy D, Dasgupta P (2008) State-of-the-art in force and tactile sensing for minimally invasive surgery. IEEE Sens J 8(4):371–381

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. King CH, Culjat MO, Franco ML, Bisley JW, Carman GP, Dutson EP, Grundfest WS (2009) A multielement tactile feedback system for robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery. IEEE Trans Haptics 2(1):52–56

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Kuwana K, Nakai A, Masamune K, Dohi T (2013): A grasping forceps with a triaxial MEMS tactile sensor for quantification of stresses on organs. In: Proceedings of the international conference of the IEEE engineering in medicine and biology society, pp 4490–4493

  7. Valdastri P, Harada K, Menciassi A, Beccai L, Stefanini C, Fujie M, Dario P (2006) Integration of a miniaturised triaxial force sensor in a minimally invasive surgical tool. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 53(11):2397–2400

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Dargahi J, Parameswaran M, Payandeh S (2000) A micromachined piezoelectric tactile sensor for an endoscopic grasper—theory, fabrication and experiments. J Microelectromech Syst 9:329–335

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Qasaimeh MA, Sokhanvar S, Dargahi J, Kahrizi M (2009) PVDF-based microfabricated tactile sensor for minimally invasive surgery. J Microelectromech Syst 18(1):195–207

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Sokhanvar S, Packirisamy M, Dargahi J (2007) A multifunctional PVDF-based tactile sensor for minimally invasive surgery. Smart Mater Struct 16:989–998

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Hong MB, Jo YH (2012) Design and evaluation of 2-DOF compliant forceps with force-sensing capability for minimally invasive robot surgery. IEEE Trans Robot 28(4):932–941

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Seibold U, Kuebler B, Hirzinger G (2008) Prototypic force feedback instrument for minimally invasive robotic surgery. In: Bozovic V (ed) Medical robotics. I-Tech Education and Publishing, Rijeka, pp 377–400

    Google Scholar 

  13. Hagn U, Konietschke R, Tobergte A, Nickl M, Jorg S, Kuebler B, Passig G, Groger M, Frohlich F, Seibold U, Le-Tien L, Albu- Schaffer A, Nothhelfer A, Hacker F, Grebenstein M, Hirzinger G (2010) DLR MiroSurge: a versatile system for research in endoscopic telesurgery. Int J CARS 5(2):183–193

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Kim U, Lee DL, Yoon WJ, Hannaford B, Choi HR (2015) Force sensor integrated surgical forceps for minimally invasive robotic surgery. IEEE Trans Robot 31(5):1214–1224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Trejos AL, Patel RV, Naish MD, Lyle AC, Schlachta CM (2009) A sensorized instrument for skills assessment and training in minimally invasive surgery. J Med Devices 3(4):041002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Arata J, Mitsuishi M, Warisawa S, Tanaka K, Yoshizawa T, Hashizume M (2005) Development of a dexterous minimally invasive surgical system with augmented force feedback capability. In: Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems, pp 3738–3743

  17. Son HI, Bhattacharjee T, Lee DY (2010) Estimation of environmental force for the haptic interface of robotic surgery. Int J Med Robot Comput Assist Surg 6(2):221–230

    Google Scholar 

  18. Tadano K, Kawashima K (2009) Development of a pneumatically driven forceps manipulator IBIS IV. In: Proceedings of ICROS-SICE international joint conference, pp 3815–3818

  19. Takaki T, Omasa Y, Ishii I, Kawahara T, Okajima M (2010) Force visualization mechanism using a moire fringe applied to endoscopic surgical instruments. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, pp 3648–3653

  20. Faragasso A, Stilli A, Bimbo J, Noh Y, Liu H, Nanayakkara T, Dasgupta P, Wurdemann HA, Althoefer K (2014) Endoscopic add-on stiffness probe for real-time soft surface characterisation in MIS. In: Proceedings of the international conference of the IEEE engineering in medicine and biology society, pp 6517–6520

  21. Li J, Liu H, Althoefer K, Seneviratne LD (2012) A stiffness probe based on force and vision sensing for soft tissue diagnosis. In: Proceedings of the international conference of the IEEE engineering in medicine and biology society, pp 944–947

  22. Watanabe T, Iwai T, Fujihira Y, Koyama T, Yoneyama T (2016) Stiffness measurement system using endoscopes with a visualization method. IEEE Sens J 16(15):5889–5897

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Kawahara T, Kaneko M (2005) Non-contact stiffness imager for medical application. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on information acquisition, pp 350–355

  24. Puangmali P, Liu H, Seneviratne LD, Dasgupta P, Althoefer K (2012) Miniature 3-axis distal force sensor for minimally invasive surgical palpation. IEEE ASME Trans Mechatron 17(4):646–656

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Tanaka Y, Fukuda T, Fujiwara M, Sano A (2015) Tactile sensor using acoustic reflection for lump detection in laparoscopic surgery. Int J CARS 10(2):183–193

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Fukuda T, Tanaka Y, Fujiwara M, Sano A (2015) Softness measurement by forceps-type tactile sensor using acoustic reflection. In: Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems, pp 3791–3796

  27. Figliola RS, Beasley DE (2011) Theory and design for mechanical measurements, 5th edn. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  28. Rosen J, Brown JD, De S, Sinanan M, Hannaford B (2008) Biomechanical properties of abdominal organs in vivo and postmortem under compression loads. J Biomech Eng 130(2):021020

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Tanaka Y, Aragaki S, Fukuda T, Fujiwara M, Sano A (2014) A study on tactile display for haptic sensing system with sensory feedback for laparoscopic surgery. In: Proceedings of the international symposium on micro-nanomechatronics and human science. doi:10.1109/MHS.2014.7006169

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Gokiso-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya, 466-8555, Japan

    Hiep Hoang Ly, Yoshihiro Tanaka, Tomohiro Fukuda & Akihito Sano

Authors
  1. Hiep Hoang Ly
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yoshihiro Tanaka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Tomohiro Fukuda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Akihito Sano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yoshihiro Tanaka.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

This article does not contain patient data.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ly, H.H., Tanaka, Y., Fukuda, T. et al. Grasper having tactile sensing function using acoustic reflection for laparoscopic surgery. Int J CARS 12, 1333–1343 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-017-1592-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-017-1592-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation