Development of an optical fiber-based sensor for grasping and axial force sensing

Abstract

In spite of the remarkable benefits that minimally invasive surgery provides for patients, the absence of force feedback is still a significant disadvantage. Several studies have been performed to address this issue; however, an accurate sterilizable force sensing technology for measuring axial and grasping forces is still missing. In this work, an innovative partial grasper has been designed and developed for a laparoscopic needle driver that can measure axial and grasping force information at the grasper tip. Fiber Bragg Grating sensors are used in this work because of their sterilizability and high sensitivity. Accuracies of 0.19 N and 0.26 N were achieved for the grasping and axial sensors respectively.