Development of haptic forceps for robotic surgery

Tactile sensation of tissues is not imparted to the surgeon's hands from the tip of the forceps in robotic surgery, making the use of appropriate force for surgical techniques difficult. To overcome this drawback, studies on haptic forceps have already been conducted; forceps with an infrared sensor, a piezoelectric transducer, the PHANToM force feedback device, a pneumatic haptic feedback actuator array, and so on. Tactile sensation, which is different from other sensations, participates in both the characterization of subject matter and the force and location of the recipient, i.e. bilaterality. We are now planning to develop a system of haptic forceps with bilateral control allowing tactile sensation to be precisely and immediately imparted to the surgeon's hands. We would need to program the information on variable senses of touch to this system to create a database. In our study, by assessing the efficiency of wound healing in terms of the extent of angiogenesis and the expressions of growth factors at wound sites, it was determined that a knot-tying force of 1.5 N may be the most appropriate for optimal wound healing in the gastrointestinal tract. We believe that the results of our study provide useful data for surgery and will contribute to the future development of robotic forceps with tactile sensation. This technology can be applied not only to robotic surgery or telesurgery but also to endoscopic methods and interventional radiology.