Development of a grasping force-feedback user interface for surgical robot system

This paper presents a grasping force-feedback user interface (GFUI) which transfers the accurate kinesthetic force detected during robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RMIS) to a user, and allows the users to perform grasping motions with articulation and intuition. Using the GFUI, a developed robot hardware (S-surge) is controlled, and the force data measured from the robot are reflected to the GFUI. To evaluate the effect of grasping force-feedback control using the GFUI, a group of subjects (n=10) participated in a standard peg transfer tasks with and without the feedback control. To conduct the tasks, a developed robot hardware and a commercial haptic device were used which make the entire surgical environment including the GFUI as a master-slave controlled system. As a result, the performance of the GFUI was verified through the conducted tasks using the entire surgical system.