A technique for measuring contact force distribution minimally invasive surgical procedures

摘要

This paper investigates new methods for measuring forces and tactile sense as a contribution towards relaying the sense of touch to the surgeon. The approach used is to determine a distribution of contact force using a small number of sensoryoutputs to detect the bending of a surface of known behaviour. Software algorithms have been produced to interpret the contacting force from sensory data, and have achieved a bandwidth of 30 Hz and an accuracy of 2 per cent. The sensor construction is ofsufficiently low cost to produce a disposable unit and uses materials that are compatible with the invasive working environment.