Pneumatic Haptic Feedback System for MIS and Extremity Prosthesis

Robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery offers improved range of motion over standard laparoscopic techniques, but is characterized by a total loss of haptic feedback, requiring surgeons to rely solely on visual clues. Visual information is sufficient for many procedures; however, it is often challenging to characterize tissues and apply appropriate forces to sutures without tactile information. Tactile feedback may also enable expansion of robotic surgery to other surgical procedures that are difficult to perform without a sense of touch. Like robotic surgery, there are various robotic applications that could be aided by the addition of tactile feedback to the operator, such as industrial and military robotics, microassembly, and space applications.

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