Soft Wearable Haptic Display and Flexible 3D Force Sensor for Teleoperated Surgical Systems

Haptic (touch) is important for effective interaction with the surroundings. In teleoperated surgical systems, its absence leads to reduced perception, making delicate tasks difficult and resulting in unexpected damage to surrounding tissues. To enhance safety, a force-feedback system and haptic device are needed. However, existing haptic prototypes are associated with rigid, bulky, and heavy components, making effective communication with the skin problematic. This paper presents a teleoperated endoscopic surgical system with an integrated 3D force sensor and real-time haptic feedback. A surgical robotic arm is remotely controlled by a soft haptic glove incorporated 3-axis cutaneous device and a finger kinesthetic module. The 3D force sensor is constructed from hydraulic filament soft sensors that can induce pressure change under strain. To enable precise motion, the haptic glove is operated by a feedforward controller and a master-slave architecture. Experiments with human subjects (n = 15) show that cutaneous and kinesthetic feedback significantly improves the user's performance (9.4 out of 10) compared to no haptic feedback (2.27 out of 10). Finally, subjects rank the new system as highly wearable, comfortable, and effective, which is expected to bridge a gap in the surgical field and support the future development of advanced teleoperated systems. This work introduces a teleoperated surgical system with integrated 3D force sensor and a soft wearable haptic display. The new system is expected to bridge a gap in the field of wearable haptic devices and support the future development of remote surgery. image