Abstract
Recent developments in medical robotics have been significant, supporting the minimally invasive operation requirements, such as smaller devices and more feedback available to surgeons. Nevertheless, the tactile feedback from a catheter or endoscopic type robotic device has been restricted mostly on the tip of the device and was not aimed to support the autonomous movement of the medical device during operation. In this work, we design a robotic sheath/sleeve with a novel and more comprehensive approach, which can function for whole body or segment-based feedback control as well as diagnostic purposes. The robotic sleeve has several types of piezo-resistive pressure and extension sensors, which are embedded at several latitudes and depths of the silicone substrate. The sleeve takes the human skin as a biological model for its structure. It has a better tactile sensation of the inner tissues in the torturous narrow channels such as cardiovascular or endoluminal tracts in human body and thus can be used to diagnose abnormalities. In addition to this capability, using the stretch sensors distributed alongside its body, the robotic sheath/sleeve can perceive the ego-motion of the robotic backbone of the catheter and can act as a position feedback device. Because of the silicone substrate, the sleeve contributes toward safety of the medical device passively by providing a compliant interface. As an active safety measure, the robotic sheath can sense blood clots or sudden turns inside a channel and by modifying the local trajectory and can prevent embolisms or tissue rupture. In the future, advanced manufacturing techniques will increase the capabilities of the tactile robotic sleeve.
Highlights
One of the most challenging issues in surgical robot development is to incorporate tactile sensing capabilities for the feedback to the surgeons
In one of the recent surveys on stateof-the-art tactile sensing for minimally invasive surgery (MIS),[1] it is clearly stated that the best place to include sensing elements in MIS device is on the instrument shaft inside the patient’s body
Some overviews focus on wearable features[4] and the others explain the difficulties in development of tactile sensor units emphasizing its complexity involving multiple transduction ways.[5]
Summary
One of the most challenging issues in surgical robot development is to incorporate tactile sensing capabilities for the feedback to the surgeons. The particular arrangement of the sensors within the substrate affects the perception capabilities and predetermines the data interpretation necessities For this challenge, in the study by Hosoda et al.,[13] a soft fingertip with randomly distributed receptors is used. The current technology can be still advanced in two main areas: (1) providing a more comprehensive tactile feedback about the tissue in contact; (2) sensing the self-shape and position of the robotic segments for safer navigation during operation. The problem addressed here involves the design of an advanced robotic sleeve which can perceive the environment using pressure, force and texture maps as well as sensing the ego-position or the self-shape of the whole robot body. To open up the problem definition and multiple tasks that can be achieved by the robotic sleeve, we define these operational modes of the robotic catheter here (see Figure 2): 1. Basic navigation mode: Position control only could be achieved visual and position feedback
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