EFFECTS OF FRICTION ON HAPTIC PERCEPTION IN SIMULATED ENDOSCOPIC ENVIRONMENTS

摘要

Current endoscopic instrumentation cannot replicate the haptic feedback available during open surgery. Distracting friction forces in the interface make it difficult for surgeons to detect and differentiate between small-scale surgical site forces. As a result, the visual channel is being used to process information that should be available through the haptic sense. An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of friction, when probing tissues of dissimilar compliance. Results showed that the presence of friction in the interface increased applied force by 45%, contact time by 40%, and errors by a factor of 2 (100%), while its absence increased human operator confidence by 15%. The effects of friction were generally more pronounced in conditions with impaired visual cues but were also very strong when vision was available. These results are applicable to the design of more effective instrumentation for endoscopic surgery as well as robotic surgery.