Evaluation of Force Feedback for Palpation and Application of Active Constraints on a Teleoperated System

A desktop haptic device is used to teleoperate an industrial redundant and compliant robotic arm with a surgical instrument mounted on its end-effector. The master and slave devices are coupled in a bilateral position-position architecture. Force feedback is provided by the master haptic device to the user, from the position of the slave’s wrist. A surgical task (palpation) that involves force feedback is presented and tested in a user study with surgeons and non-medical participants. Results show that users easily discern between three different materials during palpation given minimal familiarisation time. Active constraint enforcement is also integrated with the system as a sensitive area around the palpation samples which the slave instrument is prohibited to enter.