Enhanced tactile sensor for the minimally invasive robotic palpation

In this paper, an enhanced tactile sensor is presented which improve sensing accuracy in Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery (MIRS). Even though many types of tactile sensors have been designed, the detection of abnormal tissue is still not accurate during MIRS. Previous research results showed that a resistive type tactile sensor satisfies requirements such as sensing linearity in each sensing point, high sensitivity and enough spatial resolution, but not independency. In the sensor field, independency is a very important factor for the reliability of sensed signal. To achieve a high quality tactile feedback signal, an enhanced tactile sensor is designed to realize a high independency while maintaining the sensitivity and the linear characteristic of the previous sensor. By using this enhanced sensor, a more accurate tactile signal feedback is expected. Its design was verified through Finite Elements Analysis (FEA) and its applicability to the MIRS was proved through experiments using simulated human tissues.