Measurement System for the Characterization of Micro-Manipulation Motion and Force

Abstract

Vascular anastomoses are essential microsurgery tasks that demand levels of manual dexterity and precision barely tenable by even the most practiced and skilled surgeons. Teleoperated robotic micromanipulation devices have the potential to improve the availability and proficiency of procedures involving these anastomoses by enabling precise, repeatable motion while filtering out physiological noise that often hampers manual manipulation. In order to be clinically effective and commercially viable, such robotic microsurgery devices must provide significant improvements in the feasible workspace, motion bandwidth, precision, and dexterity achievable with current manual microsurgery procedures [1]. The research presented here constitutes further steps toward the empirical characterization of manual microsurgery motion and interaction forces, and the development of proper microsurgery robot performance requirements based upon that characterization [2]. We design a multimodal measurement device comprised of an electromagnetic (EM) motion tracking system, three-axis accelerometers, and a high resolution force-torque sensor to precisely record both the motions of microsurgical instruments and the forces applied at the tips of those instruments during a set of experimental anastomosis procedures. In addition to providing force data, this research aims to improve upon previous work by increasing motion tracking fidelity using sensor cross validation. The resulting data will be used inform the design of dexterous robotic micromanipulation system components, including tactile sensors, which enable safe tissue handling and suturing on the sub-millimeter scale, robotic wrists, and microgrippers.