Role of combined tactile and kinesthetic feedback in minimally invasive surgery

Background: Haptic feedback is of critical importance in surgical tasks. However, conventional surgical robots do not provide haptic feedback to surgeons during surgery. Thus, in this study, a combined tactile and kinesthetic feedback system was developed to provide haptic feedback to surgeons during robotic surgery. Methods: To assess haptic feasibility, the effects of two types of haptic feedback were examined empirically - kinesthetic and tactile feedback - to measure object-pulling force with a telesurgery robotics system at two desired pulling forces (1N and 2N). Participants answered a set of questionnaires after experiments. Results: The experimental results reveal reductions in force error (39.1% and 40.9%) when using haptic feedback during 1N and 2N pulling tasks. Moreover, survey analyses show the effectiveness of the haptic feedback during teleoperation. Conclusions: The combined tactile and kinesthetic feedback of the master device in robotic surgery improves the surgeon's ability to control the interaction force applied to the tissue.