Palpation instrument for augmented minimally invasive surgery

A preliminary design of a remote palpation instrument for minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is given. The lack of the tactile sense in MIS limits the surgeon´s abilities to examine and palpate internal organs. Based on this problem, the aim of this paper is to describe a surgical instrument which can serve as an extension of the surgeon´s fingers. A piezoelectric sensor array attached to the instrument´s end effector provide tactile information, which is sent to the surgeon´s fingers via a tactile display to provide a feeling of the shape and hardness of the tissue. The sensor array is 24 mm × 8 mm and consists of 30 piezoelectric sensors, while the tactile display constitutes of 30 micro motors adding up to a total size of 32 mm × 18 mm × 45 mm.