Development of surgical forceps integrated with a multi-axial force sensor for minimally invasive robotic surgery

This paper aims to develop novel surgical forceps integrated with a three-axis force sensor for robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RMIS). To detect accurate force sensing, a force sensing system is integrated to a gripper of a surgical instrument. At the gripper side, two possible locations are considered, and the sensing system is installed to the distal region of the gripper, which gives major advantages such as the gripper's minimization, palpation function, and multi-axis force sensing. Based on the capacitive-type sensing method, the sensor enables the direct measurement of the three-axis force applied to surgical gripper tip. The sensorized gripper is simply designed at a low cost, composed of only four mechanical parts, and, the forceps including two grippers are installed to an instrument that is able to conduct a grasping motion. Therefore, it is used to evaluate the performance of the force sensing system. The sensorized forceps are experimentally validated by using a commercial sensor in an experimental set-up.