Hall effect sensor detects touch forces for robotic surgery tools
Hall Effect-Based Tactile Force Detection Sensor for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery
Robotics
Summary
Surgeons using robotic tools can't feel what the robot touches, which makes delicate surgery harder. The authors created a tiny sensor that can be put on robotic tool edges to sense how hard and in which direction they’re pressing. Their sensor uses magnets and special detectors inside a soft material to measure forces accurately. They tested it with precise machines and on pig tissue to show it can feel forces during tasks like grabbing and slipping. This sensor could help robots give surgeons better touch feedback during minimally invasive surgeries.
What this means in practice
- •For robotic surgery teams: Attach small Hall effect sensors on surgical robot tool tips to gain real-time tactile force sensing during minimally invasive procedures.
- •For medical device engineers: Design compact tactile force sensors using Hall effect technology embedded in elastomers for integration with robotic surgical instruments.
Authors
Charles DeLorey, Michael Brockdorff, Adam Metcalf, Benjamin Calmé, Pietro Valdastri, Dominic Jones
Abstract
Robotic minimally invasive surgery has revolutionized surgical practice. However, as the surgeons are mechanically separated from the surgical tools, loss of tactile feedback occurs. We present a compact force sensor with three, millimeter scale sensing elements (taxels) that can be affixed to the grasping face of a robotic surgical tool. The sensor features a miniaturized design using Hall effect sensors and magnets embedded in a deformable elastomer contact layer. Sensor calibration is achieved with a 6 degree of freedom (DoF) parallel robot. Each taxel can detect applied normal and shear forces with average RMSE of 2.133 kPa. The calibrated sensor was validated on phantom and ex vivo porcine tissue, demonstrating tactile sensing during retraction as well as slip. This work introduces a small-scale Hall effect based tactile sensor, enabling sensing for force-sensitive robotic surgical applications.