A miniature microsurgical instrument tip force sensor for enhanced force feedback during robot-assisted manipulation

This paper reports the development of a new miniature force sensor designed to measure contact forces at the tip of a microsurgical instrument in three dimensions, and its application to scaled force feedback using a cooperatively manipulated microsurgical assistant robot. The principal features of the sensor are its small size of 12.5 mm in diameter and 15 mm in height, a novel configuration of flexure beams and strain gauges in order to measure forces isotropically at the instrument tip 40 mm from the sensor body, and sub-mN three-axis force-sensing resolution.