Indirect measurement of pinch and pull forces at the shaft of laparoscopic graspers

Indirect measurement of pinch and pull forces at the shaft of laparoscopic graspers

Van den Dobbelsteen, J.J.
Lee, R.A.
Van Noorden, M.
Dankelman, J.

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Biomechanical Engineering

2012-01-05

The grasping instruments used in minimally invasive surgery reduce the ability of the surgeon to feel the forces applied on the tissue, thereby complicating the handling of the tissue and increasing the risk of tissue damage. Force sensors implemented in the forceps of the instruments enable accurate measurements of applied forces, but also complicate the design of the instrument. Alternatively, indirect estimations of tissue interaction forces from measurements of the forces applied on the handle are prone to errors due to friction in the linkages. Further, the force transmission from handle to forceps exhibits large nonlinearities, so that extensive calibration procedures are needed. The kinematic analysis of the grasping mechanism and experimental results presented in this paper show that an intermediate solution, force measurements at the shaft and rod of the grasper, enables accurate measurements of the pinch and pull forces on tissue with only a limited number of calibration measurements. We further show that the force propagation from the shaft and rod to the forceps can be approximated by a linear two-dimensional function of the opening angle of the grasper and the force on the rod.

health care
human performance
medical simulation
tactile device

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:63205b16-dbe3-4c49-b5d3-cf5ef90d54ee

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-012-0862-3

Springer

0140-0118

http://www.springerlink.com/content/r113004188gt1074/

Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, 50 (3), 2012

Institutional Repository

journal article

(c) 2012 The Author(s)
This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com