Performance evaluation of Magneto-Rheological based actuation for haptic feedback in medical applications

This paper reports on the performance evaluation of Magneto-Rheological Fluid (MRF) based actuation systems when used in haptic interfaces. MRF-based actuators exhibit superior characteristics, which can significantly contribute to the transparency and stability of haptic devices. To validate this statement, a prototype two degrees-of-freedom (DoF) haptic interface is constructed. A distributed antagonistic configuration is used in order to develop the 2-DoF haptic interface based on small-scale MRF-based clutches for a class of medical applications. The developed device is compared with three conventional haptic interfaces and their stability is compared using the Virtual Wall experiment. Next, the prototype interface is incorporated in a master-slave teleoperation medical setup. Preliminary studies on the performance of the haptic interface show great potential of MRF-based actuators for integration in haptic devices for medical interventions that require safe, accurate, and stable force representation.