Abstract
In this study, a controllable tactile device capable of realizing repulsive forces from soft human tissues was proposed, and its effectiveness was verified through experimental tests. The device was fabricated using both porous polyurethane foam (PPF) and smart magnetorheological fluid (MRF). As a first step, the microstructural behavior of MRF particle chains that depended on the magnetic field was examined via scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The test samples were then fabricated after analyzing the magnetic field distribution, which was crucial for the formation of the particle chains under the squeeze mode operation. In the fabrication of the samples, MRF was immersed into the porous polyurethane foam and encapsulated by adhesive tape to avoid leakage. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed tactile device for appropriate stiffness of soft human tissues such as liver, the repulsive force and relaxation stress were measured and discussed as a function of the magnetic field intensity. In addition, the effectiveness and practical applicability of the proposed tactile device have been validated through the psychophysical test.
Highlights
In recent years, operations using advanced tools and robots have been gradually increasing in the medical industry
It can be clearly observed that all relaxation stresses were stably formed within 120 s. This allowed soft human tissues to be mimicked within the controllable range of MRP1 and MRP2
MRP2 showed lower initial value and higher repulsive force because its magnetorheological fluid (MRF) was located between smaller pore stems
Summary
Operations using advanced tools and robots have been gradually increasing in the medical industry. The main contribution of this work is the fabrication and testing of a controllable tactile device which can capture several different repulsive forces of human tissues that occur at the operating site in RMIS or any other robotic-assisted surgery. To achieve this goal, tactile samples were fabricated by immersing MRF into porous polyurethane foam (MRP, in short), and encapsulating it by adhesive tape to avoid leakage. It is noted here that even though the surgeon is able to use the proposed tactile device for the minimally invasive surgery, the test to recognize the different repulsive force depending on the magnetic field intensity (or current input) needs to be carried out to identify the corresponding repulsive force of the human organs or tissues
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