Force feedback-based telemicromanipulation for robot surgery on soft tissues

In order to investigate basic problems in the use of robots for surgical applications, an experimental testbed aimed at performing tasks requiring fine control of force and movement such as cutting a soft tissue was developed. Preliminary results obtained with the present version of the robot system confirm the importance of tactile and force sensing capabilities in order to perform tasks potentially useful for surgical applications. Tactile sensing detects features of the material to be cut which can be useful in planning cutting strategies. As for force sensing, the adopted control strategy requires a force feedback from the slave finger sensors to inform the master on the progress of the operation: this feedback signal can be used to counteract the movements of the stick