Haptic information displays for computer-assisted surgery

We propose the use of robotic and haptic technology to develop haptic information displays for computer-assisted surgery applications. Such devices provide force and/or tactile feedback to a surgeon to communicate information that is difficult or impossible to communicate via a graphical display alone. Haptic information displays differ from autonomous robots and teleoperators used in surgical applications, and have different requirements than the haptic devices designed for training and simulation of surgical procedures. A haptic information display based on Barrett Technology's Whole-Arm Manipulator is introduced and early experiments for two different classes of medical applications are discussed. This new application area raises open research questions in the areas of haptic robotic systems and human machine interaction.