Simple structured tactile sensor for tissue recognition in minimal invasion surgery

In this research we present new tactile sensor with simple structure and small size. This sensor is for recognition of tissue stiffness in minimally invasive surgery(MIS) in which surgeon cannot directly palpate. Tactile sensor should be work in vivo and it should be small to be used in MIS. For this reason, we developed simple structure tactile sensor and also made many sensing points using semiconductor strain gage. We will attach this sensor to gripper of automated surgical instruments and try to palpate tissue automatically. In this paper we show how to design our sensor and how to verify sensor performance to present the effectiveness of sensor.