Design enhancement of a mechanical test jig for experimental analysis of a tactile sensor.

Abstract

Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is one of the essential surgical operations available today. Although the force feedback from the forceps is a crucial segment, it is still not yet successfully introduced to the operation table. At Robotic Research Center (RRC) in Nanyang Technological University (NTU), a research group is investigating into a novel tactile sensing method which could replicate the applied forces from the forceps to the surgeons’ side. A final year project was planned for studying and monitoring the 2x5 tactile sensing array. This project is to investigate the behavior and find out the sensitivity of the sensing array.

The experiments conducted were using a set of one Degree-Of-Freedom (DOF) sensing array function as forceps and various rubber samples simulate the soft tissues. However, in actual MIS, not only one directional of forces are found in the forceps, therefore a two DOF sensing array was introduced and studied in this project.