Gripping Force Feedback System for Neurosurgery

A force feedback manipulator system was developed for use in neurosurgery. The system consists of a multidegree of freedom manipulator with a forcedetecting gripper and a device capable of using force feedback to display kinesthetic sense. The structure, which consists of parallel thin plates in the gripper of the manipulator, enables the detection of a gripping force and a pulling force, which can be used to grip and pull tumors. In this paper, we describe ways of improving the structure of the force sensor. Throughbilateral control, the operation device is able to display the gripping force as its driving force, and the pulling force as the frictional force between the display device and the skin of the finger. We also conducted experiments to test the force sense display capabilities of the developed system. The results showed that the system can display a force and the difference between the softness of different objects that are gripped. The ability of the system to identify different objects is increased by magnifying the detected force using an appropriate scale.