Evaluation of sensor configurations for robotic surgical instruments

Gómez-de-Gabriel, J. M. and Harwin, W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3928-3381 (2015) Evaluation of sensor configurations for robotic surgical instruments. Sensors, 15 (10). pp. 27341-27358. ISSN 1424-8220 doi: 10.3390/s151027341

Abstract/Summary

Designing surgical instruments for robotic-assisted minimally-invasive surgery (RAMIS) is challenging due to constraints on the number and type of sensors imposed by considerations such as space or the need for sterilization. A new method for evaluating the usability of virtual teleoperated surgical instruments based on virtual sensors is presented. This method uses virtual prototyping of the surgical instrument with a dual physical interaction, which allows testing of different sensor configurations in a real environment. Moreover, the proposed approach has been applied to the evaluation of prototypes of a two-finger grasper for lump detection by remote pinching. In this example, the usability of a set of five different sensor configurations, with a different number of force sensors, is evaluated in terms of quantitative and qualitative measures in clinical experiments with 23 volunteers. As a result, the smallest number of force sensors needed in the surgical instrument that ensures the usability of the device can be determined. The details of the experimental setup are also included.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/48021
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Department of Bio-Engineering
Publisher	MDPI Publishing, Basel
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item