Design of tactile device for medical application using magnetorheological fluid

For the tactile recognition of human organ in minimally invasive surgery (MIS), this paper presents a novel tactile device that incorporates with magnetorheological (MR fluid). The MR fluid is contained by diaphragm and several pins. The operator for MIS can feel different force (or stiffness) from the proposed tactile device by applying different magnetic field or current. In order to generate required force from the device, the repulsive force from the human body is measured as reference data and an appropriate size of tactile device is designed and manufactured. It has been demonstrated via experiment that the repulsive force corresponding to the human body can be achieved by applying proper control input current. In addition, it has been shown that we can control the repulsive force by dividing the tactile device by several sections.