title: Development of A Miniaturized 3-DOF Force Sensing Instrument for Robotically Assisted Retinal Microsurgery and Preliminary Results.
abstract: Lack of force sensing is one of the most formidable technical challenges in retinal microsurgery. Incorporating high sensitivity force sensing into the ophthalmic tools has the potential to provide the surgeon useful force feedback and to enable safe robotic assistance. This paper presents a new design of a three degrees of freedom force sensing instrument based on fiber Bragg grating sensors. A new flexure is developed to achieve high axial force sensing sensitivity and low crosstalk noise. The force sensing segment of the tool, located directly proximal to the tool tip, is ø0.9×8 mm. An extensive calibration shows that the force sensor can measure the transverse and axial force up to 21 mN with 0.5 mN and 3.3 mN accuracy, respectively. The new flexure design demonstrates the potential to improve axial force sensing. Analysis of the experiment results suggests improvements for the future iteration.
authors.affiliation: Mechanical Engineering Department, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
authors.forename: Xingchi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA. Dr. Handa is the Robert Bond Welch Professor.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gehlbach
authors.affiliation: Computer Science Department, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. Dr. Taylor is the John C. Malone Professor.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Handa
authors.forename: Russell
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Iulian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Iordachita