title: An indentation depth-force sensing wheeled probe for abnormality identification during minimally invasive surgery.
abstract: This paper presents a novel wheeled probe for the purpose of aiding a surgeon in soft tissue abnormality identification during minimally invasive surgery (MIS), compensating the loss of haptic feedback commonly associated with MIS. Initially, a prototype for validating the concept was developed. The wheeled probe consists of an indentation depth sensor employing an optic fibre sensing scheme and a force/torque sensor. The two sensors work in unison, allowing the wheeled probe to measure the tool-tissue interaction force and the rolling indentation depth concurrently. The indentation depth sensor was developed and initially tested on a homogenous silicone phantom representing a good model for a soft tissue organ; the results show that the sensor can accurately measure the indentation depths occurring while performing rolling indentation, and has good repeatability. To validate the ability of the wheeled probe to identify abnormalities located in the tissue, the device was tested on a silicone phantom containing embedded hard nodules. The experimental data demonstrate that recording the tissue reaction force as well as rolling indentation depth signals during rolling indentation, the wheeled probe can rapidly identify the distribution of tissue stiffness and cause the embedded hard nodules to be accurately located.
authors.affiliation: King's College London, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Division of Engineering, School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Strand, London, UK.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Puangmali
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zbyszewski
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Elhage
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dasgupta
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Seneviratne
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Althoefer
mesh_terms: D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation*; D010173:Palpation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000639:trends*; D014110:Touch; D014159:Transducers; D014584:User-Computer Interface