Pseudo-haptic feedback in medical teleoperation

Abstract Pseudo-haptic feedback is a haptic illusion based on a mismatch of haptic and visual perception. It is well known from applications in virtual environments. In this work, we discuss the usabiliy of the principle of pseudo-haptic feedback for teleoperation. Using pseudo-haptic feedback can ease the design of haptic medical tele-operation systems. Thereby a user’s grasping force at an isometric user interface is used to control the closing angle of an end effector of a surgical robot. To provide a realistic haptic feedback, the coupling characteristic of grasping force and end effector closing angle is changed depending on acting end effector interaction forces. With an experiment, we show the usability of pseudo-haptic feedback for discriminating compliances, comparable to the mechanical characteristic of muscles relaxed and contracted. The provided results base upon the data of 10 subjects, and 300 trails.