Role of combined tactile and kinesthetic feedback in minimally invasive surgery

BackgroundHaptic feedback is of critical importance in surgical tasks. However, conventional surgical robots do not provide haptic feedback to surgeons during surgery. Thus, in this study, a combined tactile and kinesthetic feedback system was developed to provide haptic feedback to surgeons during robotic surgery. MethodsTo assess haptic feasibility, the effects of two types of haptic feedback were examined empirically - kinesthetic and tactile feedback - to measure object-pulling force with a telesurgery robotics system at two desired pulling forces (1N and 2N). Participants answered a set of questionnaires after experiments. ResultsThe experimental results reveal reductions in force error (39.1% and 40.9%) when using haptic feedback during 1N and 2N pulling tasks. Moreover, survey analyses show the effectiveness of the haptic feedback during teleoperation. ConclusionsThe combined tactile and kinesthetic feedback of the master device in robotic surgery improves the surgeon's ability to control the interaction force applied to the tissue. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.