Pneumatically driven surgical forceps displaying a magnified grasping torque

Background: Sensing the grasping force and displaying the force for the operator are important for safe operation in robot-assisted surgery. Although robotic forceps that senses the force by force sensors or driving torque of electric motors is proposed, the force sensors and the motors have some problems such as increase in weight and difficulty of the sterilization. Method: We developed a pneumatically driven robotic forceps that estimates the grasping torque and display the magnified torque for the operator. The robotic forceps has a master device and a slave robot, and they are integrated. In the slave side, the grasping torque is estimated by the pressure change in the pneumatic cylinder. A pneumatic bellows display the torque through a linkage. Results: We confirmed that the slave robot follows the motion of the master, and the grasping torque is estimated in the accuracy of 7 mNm and is magnified and displayed for the operator. Conclusions: The pneumatically driven robotic forceps has the capability in the estimation of the grasping torque and display of the torque. Regarding future work, the usability and fatigues of the surgeons must be evaluated.