Force Feedback-Enabled Dexterous Robotic Micromanipulation Platform for Surgical Tasks

This paper describes the design and experimental evaluation of a dexterous, force feedback-enabled robotic micromanipulation system. The system is composed of a dexterous non-backdriveable robotic wrist rigidly attached to a three-DOF, linearly actuated platform, and is instrumented with a six-axis force/torque sensor at the base of the wrist. By leveraging the rigidity and non-backdriveability of the system, a wrench sensed at the tool tip can be estimated through a rigid transformation from the force/torque sensor location to the known position and orientation of the end-effector. The force-sensing capability of the proposed system is demonstrated through the performance of two representative micromanipulation tasks: needle insertion and palpation. Results suggest that this system is capable of accurately resolving tool tip interaction forces, despite the complexity of its kinematics, and without the need for sensors located, distally, at the interaction site.