Biomedical Robotics for Healthcare

Abstract

Haptic information is crucial in the execution of precise and dexterous manipulations. During minimally invasive surgery, medical doctors are required to indirectly sense force-related information from body organ tissue via forceps because they cannot directly touch the tissue. The evaluation of force-based skill is critical in the judgment of whether a person has adequate manipulation skills to conduct surgery procedures. Currently, simulation training in minimally invasive surgery is a required component of general surgery residency training. A primary obstacle in the development of a training simulator with a haptic feedback capability is its high cost. This chapter addresses two research issues that must be integrated in the development of a cost-effective haptic training system: the challenge of skill evaluation during laparoscopic surgery by measuring the force applied to forceps, and a novel haptic display based on a haptic augmented reality (AR) technique.