Model-Based grasp force estimation for minimally invasive surgery

Robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery becomes more and more popular, but the lack of force sensing for surgical robots restricts the development of this technology. The traditional way to obtain tool-tissue interaction force is to integrate sensors at the end of surgical instruments, which is not well adopted in practical due to high-cost and sterilization problems. It is necessary to explore a sensorless force obtaining method. A model-based force estimation method is proposed in this paper. We studied the structure characteristics of a cable-driven surgical instrument, and built an experimental platform to investigate the friction phenomenon of it. The dynamic model of one jaw is established and the force estimation experiment is conducted. The result shows that the estimation value obtained using the proposed method followed the true value of force.