An integrated pneumatic tactile feedback actuator array for robotic surgery

Background A pneumatically controlled balloon actuator array has been developed to provide tactile feedback to the fingers during robotic surgery. Methods The actuator and pneumatics were integrated onto a robotic surgical system. Potential interference of the inactive system was evaluated using a timed robotic peg transfer task. System performance was evaluated by measuring human perception of the thumb and index finger. Results No significant difference was found between performance with and without the inactive mounted actuator blocks. Subjects were able to determine inflation location with > 95% accuracy and five discrete inflation levels with both the index finger and thumb with accuracies of 94% and 92%. Temporal tests revealed that an 80 ms temporal separation was sufficient to detect balloon stimuli with high accuracy. Conclusions The mounted balloon actuators successfully transmitted tactile information to the index finger and thumb, while not hindering performance of robotic surgical movements. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.