Assemblable Hand for Laparoscopic Surgery with Phased Array and Single-Element Ultrasound Probes

During laparoscopic surgery, large internal organs should often be manipulated while being internally visualized. For this purpose, we study an assemblable two-fingered hand implemented with an ultrasound probe. The fingers are separately introduced into the abdominal cavity through small incisions and are assembled into a hand sufficiently large to grasp or manipulate the large organ. Two types of ultrasound probes are employed; a phased array probe of a commercially available ultrasound diagnosis system, and a single-element probe. Using the latter probe, the hand is assembled through 12 mm trocars and is assessed in an in vivo experiment. Ultrasound echo sensing is found to retrieve diagnostic information regarding specific internal organs. It also visualizes the finger and its back during grasping, which can improve the safety of hand grasping and manipulation. Furthermore, ultrasound echo sensing can assist the measurement of the relative position and orientation of the two grasping fingers.