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Robotics and Haptics: Haptic Feedback for Medical Robots
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Robotics and Haptics: Haptic Feedback for Medical Robots

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensors and Robotics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 12621

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Min Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Interests: haptic feedback; rehabilitation robots; soft robotics
Dr. Wei Yao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Interests: medical robotics; navigation; medical imaging; tracking and surgical technology
Dr. Shan Luo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Interests: tactile sensing; robot perception; visual-tactile learning

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Touch is one of the most basic and immediate senses we possess. Haptic feedback allows us to make instinctive and subconscious decisions. Many robotic fields related to medical applications can benefit from haptics. Haptic sensing and feedback is a useful tool to solve the problem of limited sense of touch in robot-assisted surgery. With the help of haptic feedback, medical simulators, including robotic training phantoms, enable advanced physical examination training and surgical training before using human patients. Adding haptic feedback to prosthetics can enhance the functions of prosthetics and help people who use prosthetics to expend less mental effort while carrying out tasks. Haptic feedback can also provide more sensation cues during robot-assisted rehabilitation training, subsequently leading to improved motor relearning of post-stroke patients. This Special Issue intends to include studies related to haptic sensing and feedback for medical robots such as medical simulators, rehabilitation robots, prosthetics, and robotics for surgery. 

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

Methods of haptic/tactile sensing for medical robots;
Novel haptic/tactile sensors for medical robots;
Developments of haptic/tactile feedback devices for medical robots;
Methods of haptic/tactile feedback for medical robots;
Clinical studies on haptic-related medical robots.

Dr. Min Li
Dr. Wei Yao
Dr. Shan Luo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • haptic sensing
  • haptic feedback
  • haptic devices
  • rehabilitation robotics
  • prosthetics
  • surgical robotics
  • robotic training phantoms
  • medical simulators
  • medical robotics

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 4451 KiB  
Article
A Transparent Teleoperated Robotic Surgical System with Predictive Haptic Feedback and Force Modelling
by Taran Batty, Armin Ehrampoosh, Bijan Shirinzadeh, Yongmin Zhong and Julian Smith
Sensors 2022, 22(24), 9770; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22249770 - 13 Dec 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1803
Abstract
In recent years, robotic minimally invasive surgery has transformed many types of surgical procedures and improved their outcomes. Implementing effective haptic feedback into a teleoperated robotic surgical system presents a significant challenge due to the trade-off between transparency and stability caused by system [...] Read more.
In recent years, robotic minimally invasive surgery has transformed many types of surgical procedures and improved their outcomes. Implementing effective haptic feedback into a teleoperated robotic surgical system presents a significant challenge due to the trade-off between transparency and stability caused by system communication time delays. In this paper, these time delays are mitigated by implementing an environment estimation and force prediction methodology into an experimental robotic minimally invasive surgical system. At the slave, an exponentially weighted recursive least squares (EWRLS) algorithm estimates the respective parameters of the Kelvin–Voigt (KV) and Hunt–Crossley (HC) force models. The master then provides force feedback by interacting with a virtual environment via the estimated parameters. Palpation experiments were conducted with the slave in contact with polyurethane foam during human-in-the-loop teleoperation. The experimental results indicated that the prediction RMSE of error between predicted master force feedback and measured slave force was reduced to 0.076 N for the Hunt–Crossley virtual environment, compared to 0.356 N for the Kelvin–Voigt virtual environment and 0.560 N for the direct force feedback methodology. The results also demonstrated that the HC force model is well suited to provide accurate haptic feedback, particularly when there is a delay between the master and slave kinematics. Furthermore, a haptic feedback approach that incorporates environment estimation and force prediction improve transparency during teleoperation. In conclusion, the proposed bilateral master–slave robotic system has the potential to provide transparent and stable haptic feedback to the surgeon in surgical robotics procedures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robotics and Haptics: Haptic Feedback for Medical Robots)
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15 pages, 6184 KiB  
Article
Interactive 3D Force/Torque Parameter Acquisition and Correlation Identification during Primary Trocar Insertion in Laparoscopic Abdominal Surgery: 5 Cases
by Nantida Nillahoot, Branesh M. Pillai, Bibhu Sharma, Chumpon Wilasrusmee and Jackrit Suthakorn
Sensors 2022, 22(22), 8970; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22228970 - 19 Nov 2022
Viewed by 1621
Abstract
Laparoscopic procedures have become indispensable in gastrointestinal surgery. As a minimally invasive process, it begins with primary trocar insertion. However, this step poses the threat of injuries to the gastrointestinal tract and blood vessels. As such, the comprehension of the insertion process is [...] Read more.
Laparoscopic procedures have become indispensable in gastrointestinal surgery. As a minimally invasive process, it begins with primary trocar insertion. However, this step poses the threat of injuries to the gastrointestinal tract and blood vessels. As such, the comprehension of the insertion process is crucial to the development of robotic-assisted/automated surgeries. To sustain robotic development, this research aims to study the interactive force/torque (F/T) behavior between the trocar and the abdomen during the trocar insertion process. For force/torque (F/T) data acquisition, a trocar interfaced with a six-axis F/T sensor was used by surgeons for the insertion. The study was conducted during five abdominal hernia surgical cases in the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University. The real-time F/T data were further processed and analyzed. The fluctuation in the force/torque (F/T) parameter was significant, with peak force ranging from 16.83 N to 61.86 N and peak torque ranging from 0.552 Nm to 1.76 Nm. The force parameter was observed to positively correlate with procedural time, while torque was found to be negatively correlated. Although during the process a surgeon applied force and torque in multiple axes, for a robotic system, the push and turn motion in a single axis was observed to be sufficient. For minimal tissue damage in less procedural time, a system with low push force and high torque was observed to be advantageous. These understandings will eventually benefit the development of computer-assisted or robotics technology to improve the outcome of the primary trocar insertion procedure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robotics and Haptics: Haptic Feedback for Medical Robots)
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20 pages, 7843 KiB  
Article
A Force-Feedback Methodology for Teleoperated Suturing Task in Robotic-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery
by Armin Ehrampoosh, Bijan Shirinzadeh, Joshua Pinskier, Julian Smith, Randall Moshinsky and Yongmin Zhong
Sensors 2022, 22(20), 7829; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22207829 - 14 Oct 2022
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2482
Abstract
With robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RAMIS), patients and surgeons benefit from a reduced incision size and dexterous instruments. However, current robotic surgery platforms lack haptic feedback, which is an essential element of safe operation. Moreover, teleportation control challenges make complex surgical tasks like [...] Read more.
With robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RAMIS), patients and surgeons benefit from a reduced incision size and dexterous instruments. However, current robotic surgery platforms lack haptic feedback, which is an essential element of safe operation. Moreover, teleportation control challenges make complex surgical tasks like suturing more time-consuming than those that use manual tools. This paper presents a new force-sensing instrument that semi-automates the suturing task and facilitates teleoperated robotic manipulation. In order to generate the ideal needle insertion trajectory and pass the needle through its curvature, the end-effector mechanism has a rotating degree of freedom. Impedance control was used to provide sensory information about needle–tissue interaction forces to the operator using an indirect force estimation approach based on data-based models. The operator’s motion commands were then regulated using a hyperplanar virtual fixture (VF) designed to maintain the desired distance between the end-effector and tissue surface while avoiding unwanted contact. To construct the geometry of the VF, an optoelectronic sensor-based approach was developed. Based on the experimental investigation of the hyperplane VF methodology, improved needle–tissue interaction force, manipulation accuracy, and task completion times were demonstrated. Finally, experimental validation of the trained force estimation models and the perceived interaction forces by the user was conducted using online data, demonstrating the potential of the developed approach in improving task performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robotics and Haptics: Haptic Feedback for Medical Robots)
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28 pages, 13414 KiB  
Article
A Novel Untethered Hand Wearable with Fine-Grained Cutaneous Haptic Feedback
by Alexander Co Abad, David Reid and Anuradha Ranasinghe
Sensors 2022, 22(5), 1924; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22051924 - 01 Mar 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 5216
Abstract
During open surgery, a surgeon relies not only on the detailed view of the organ being operated upon and on being able to feel the fine details of this organ but also heavily relies on the combination of these two senses. In laparoscopic [...] Read more.
During open surgery, a surgeon relies not only on the detailed view of the organ being operated upon and on being able to feel the fine details of this organ but also heavily relies on the combination of these two senses. In laparoscopic surgery, haptic feedback provides surgeons information on interaction forces between instrument and tissue. There have been many studies to mimic the haptic feedback in laparoscopic-related telerobotics studies to date. However, cutaneous feedback is mostly restricted or limited in haptic feedback-based minimally invasive studies. We argue that fine-grained information is needed in laparoscopic surgeries to study the details of the instrument’s end and can convey via cutaneous feedback. We propose an exoskeleton haptic hand wearable which consists of five 4 × 4 miniaturized fingertip actuators, 80 in total, to convey cutaneous feedback. The wearable is described as modular, lightweight, Bluetooth, and WiFi-enabled, and has a maximum power consumption of 830 mW. Software is developed to demonstrate rapid tactile actuation of edges; this allows the user to feel the contours in cutaneous feedback. Moreover, to demonstrate the idea as an object displayed on a flat monitor, initial tests were carried out in 2D. In the second phase, the wearable exoskeleton glove is then further developed to feel 3D virtual objects by using a virtual reality (VR) headset demonstrated by a VR environment. Two-dimensional and 3D objects were tested by our novel untethered haptic hand wearable. Our results show that untethered humans understand actuation in cutaneous feedback just in a single tapping with 92.22% accuracy. Our wearable has an average latency of 46.5 ms, which is much less than the 600 ms tolerable delay acceptable by a surgeon in teleoperation. Therefore, we suggest our untethered hand wearable to enhance multimodal perception in minimally invasive surgeries to naturally feel the immediate environments of the instruments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robotics and Haptics: Haptic Feedback for Medical Robots)
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