Achieving Haptic Perception in Forceps’ Manipulator Using Pneumatic Artificial Muscle

Many minimally invasive surgical procedures are now performed using teleoperated robotic systems. However, such commercially available systems do not provide significant force feedback to the surgeon. This reduces surgeon's dexterity and increases tissue trauma when performing the operation. In this paper, a compact and lightweight forceps' manipulator using pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) for minimally invasive surgery is presented, which allows for the perception of manipulation force without the usage of the force sensor. The main advantage of this concept is that no force sensor has to be integrated into surgical instruments and inserted into the patient's body. Rather, a disturbance observer is integrated into the slave-side controller for the estimation of the external force acting at the forcep's tip. This approach reduces costs and stabilizability demands for forceps' manipulator while enables haptic feedback to the surgeons. Results of force perception experiments and comparison with forceps' manipulator driven by pneumatic cylinders are presented to validate the concepts.