A Pneumatic Balloon Actuated Cantilever Beam with Tactile Feedback for Use in Minimally Invasive Surgery

Abstract

There is a need for a versatile system with integration between microtechnologies and sensing techniques to retrieve information feedback about the physical parameters of an object in the emerging areas of minimally invasive surgery. These methods have been applied to a pneumatic balloon actuated cantilever beam sensor in order to design a micro-scale gripping device and to further develop upon the existing need for sensory feedback. The pneumatic actuation produces displacement together with a large force by a deformation of the beam under a pressure supply. When actuated the gripper rig is able to grasp objects. The force exerted on the object is measured by the pressure of the air in the balloon and used to control the driving system of the gripper. Neural networks that are able to predict contact of the object, object position, size and stiffness have been constructed, this could help surgeons to detect tissue properties in minimally invasive surgical procedures. The results from the gripper proved extremely accurate in their predictions, they were able to predict object position within 98.6% accuracy and object diameter within 90% accuracy, also the gripper is able to discriminate between four different examples of object stiffness. The results from the large gripper and further analysis have been used to make recommendations for the design of the gripper on the micro-scale.