Measurement of force acting on surgical instrument for force-feedback to master robot console

Abstract For fine surgical operation by slave robot, master robot needs the information of the contact force loaded on the tip of the surgical instrument. One of major problems in sensing the force is frictional disturbance between the trocar and the instrument. One of authors proposed a new method named overcoat method where the whole instrument is supported by force sensors. This paper tried to construct a force measuring system with the trocar type of the overcoat method. It discussed about the compensations of gravity and acceleration force of the instrument in relation to the pose and motion of the instrument. The tried system measured the tip-loaded force in absolute accuracy about 0.3 N and in sensitivity about 0.05 N.