Smart Laparoscopic Grasper Utilizing Force and Angle Sensors for Stiffness Assessment in Minimally Invasive Surgery

As an alternative to open surgery, minimally invasive surgery (MIS) utilizes small skin incisions as ports to insert an endoscope and surgical tools. MIS offers significant advantages, including reduced pain, shorter recovery times, and better cosmetic outcomes than classical surgeries. However, MIS procedures come at the cost of losing the "sense of touch," which surgeons rely on to examine the tissues under operation, palpate organs, and assessing their conditions. This has encouraged researchers to develop smart MIS tools that provide artificial tactile sensation, mostly using electrical- or optical-based tactile sensors. In this work, we introduce a prototype of a smart laparoscopic grasper integrated with force and angle sensing capabilities via off-the-shelf sensors. The specification and design of the smart grasper are presented, as well as a demonstration on stiffness assessment of elastomeric samples and chicken meat. Overall, our prototype exhibits great potential for MIS applications, with room for future improvements.Clinical Relevance— The development of a smart laparoscopic grasper for MIS applications helps in restoring the tactile sensation to surgeons and enables safe grasping and manipulation of human organs.