User interface of force-controlled arm for endoscopic surgery

This paper proposes a User Interface (UI) of a force-controlled arm for endoscopic surgery. It consists of two input configurations for endoscope type (straight or oblique endoscope) and operation type (direct or indirect operation). Direct operation is used for wide area motion based on direct operation of the force-controlled arm, and indirect operation is for fine and precise movement to adjust the visual field by tool tracking or joystick manipulation. These were tested by doctors and development members as subjects. It was then confirmed that both operation types can be effective. We also discuss about the importance of detecting contact with organs from outside the patient's body (without sensors near the tool tip) and evaluate the feasibility of this feature with external force estimation function for force-controlled arm as a first step. As a result, it was found that the external forces in the insertion direction to the trocar can be estimated with an error of about ±0.2 N and up to 1.0 N on the other directions. Therefore we confirmed that contact detection function can be effective.