One issue of robotic microsurgery is that compared to manual surgery, the operation time tends to be longer due to high motion scaling. To address this issue, we developed a new controller that can provide the accuracy required for microsurgery without a high scaling factor by utilizing fingertip and wrist motions. Also, for the better outcome of surgery, the proposed controller has a force feedback function which is not available for the existing controllers for microsurgical robots. A challenge of designing such a controller is associated with the size requirement. For conventional microsurgery, surgeons perform surgical procedures while looking at the eyepieces of a surgical microscope and the same applies for robotic microsurgery. The only space available to manipulate controllers is a narrow space between the patient/surgical bed and the surgeon. To satisfy this constraint, the proposed controller is integrated with a handrest and the controller’s DOFs are strategically allocated. In this work, as the first step of addressing the issue of prolonged operational time, we built a prototype controller and evaluated the accuracy and task space with simulations. The results indicated that by using the fingertip and wrist motions with a scaling factor of 3x, 0.5 mm diameter circles could be traced with a mean bidirectional precision of 0.0485 mm. Also, 10.0 mm diameter circles were traceable with the same scaling factor.

In robotic surgeries employing the master-slave operation scheme, various haptic devices have been adopted as master manipulators. The main challenge of the haptic device is to contribute to a sensitive reaction to external forces for operators. Since force perception on fingertips is impaired by unstable entire hand condition, stable hand condition helps to improve force perception. This study proposed a master manipulator that enables a force feedback at the gripping fingertips on a stable hand condition with a hand rest function. In this framework, the hand rest function was realized by switching the impedance value in admittance control for the translation section of the master manipulator and the displaying force was generated based on the pivot point, which depends on only the movement of the translation section. With master-slave operation, an 8-drawing experiment was performed under multiple force feedback and hand conditions after evaluating the effectiveness of a hand rest on sensitivity for external force in a preliminary experiment. The results showed that the hand rest function contributed to effective force feedback.

In conventional robotic surgery, the manipulating methods exhibit limitations that are strongly related to the advantages and disadvantages of a pinch grip and power grip. The context of this study is focused on the introduction of a combined grip to compensate for such restraints. In particular, this study proposed the combined-grip-handle scheme on a master manipulator. In this framework, the position of fingertips was designed to be adjustable in distance and direction to allow for a pinch grip motion around the holding axis of a power grip motion. A ring-bar experiment applying the master-slave scheme was conducted with the master manipulator under several manipulating conditions of the combined grip and the conventional gripping types. Results for using the combined grip demonstrated that the combined grip showed better performance on the positioning operation, compared with the conventional gripping types.

When adjusting the parameters of a bilateral controlled master–slave system according to the task requirements, the operator’s haptic sensation requirements for the contact between the slave device and the environment should also be considered. However, a quantitative relationship between the parameters and the haptic sensation has not been clarified. First, this paper introduces an index quantifying the operator’s haptic sensation by its value. Second, for the simple and complex position-force bilateral control models, the relationships between the haptic sensation index and the parameters are derived and expressed as functions calculating the index value directly from the parameter values. Third, the experimental results reveal that the parameter design according to the derived function is valid. The results of this study are expected to be useful as a guideline for adjusting the parameters of a bilateral controlled master–slave system with consideration to the haptic sensation.

This article proposes an index to estimate the operator’s haptic sensation of the contact between the slave device and the environment in operating master–slave systems with force feedback function. The index value is derived from the velocity information of the master device before and after contact, which is hypothesized to represent the intensity of haptic sensation stimuli presented to the operator. Two characteristics of this index are discussed by means of psychophysics experiment, which are the statistical characteristics of the index value for different operators, and how the change in the operator’s haptic sensation is reflected on the index value. The index is validated by another psychophysics experiment. The experimental results show that the performance of operator’s haptic sensation can be predicted correctly based on the proposed index value. This index is expected to be applied in the parameter design of bilateral-control systems with force feedback function.

This paper presents the first prototype of pneumatically-driven forceps manipulator using a simple flexible joint with intrinsic force sensing. A high performance spring component with wire actuation is employed for two-degree of freedom (DOF) bending joint, and two-DOF tendon drive system is implemented by four pneumatic cylinders. Using a continuum model for the kinematics, a PD controller with static and dynamic compensation is designed for the position control, which shows a good performance at the sufficient working frequency for surgical operations. The forceps manipulator can estimate external forces using a disturbance observer. A link approximation model is introduced to design the observer as the first intuitive approach. The force estimation can be achieved with an accuracy of 0.2 N in the basic straight posture.

Despite the great diversity of teleoperator designs and applications, their underlying control systems have many similarities. These similarities can be exploited to enable inter-operability between heterogeneous systems. We have developed a network data specification, the Interoperable Telerobotics Protocol, that can be used for Internet based control of a wide range of teleoperators. In this work we test interoperable telerobotics on the global Internet, focusing on the telesurgery application domain. Fourteen globally dispersed telerobotic master and slave systems were connected in thirty trials in one twenty four hour period. Users performed common manipulation tasks to demonstrate effective master-slave operation. With twenty eight (93%) successful, unique connections the results show a high potential for standardizing telerobotic operation. Furthermore, new paradigms for telesurgical operation and training are presented, including a networked surgery trainer and upper-limb exoskeleton control of micro-manipulators.

In this paper, a grip amplified glove using pneumatic artificial rubber muscles (PARMs) which are covered with a exoskeleton structure is developed. A bi-articular mechanism with a PARM that is suitable for bending finger is realized. The glove has totally 10 DOFs consist of four units. To achieve power-assist motion properly, the PI control, which is based on the pressure value from the balloon sensor, is performed. This sensor makes the applied part free from electricity. To evaluate the validity of glove, the skin surface electromyography (EMG) signals of muscles are measured during grasping. These results demonstrate that the effectiveness of the power amplified glove.

Force-reflecting teleoperators in which the remote environment is kinesthetically coupled to the operator can considerably increase task performance. Wave-variable-based controllers can support the stable operation of force-reflecting teleoperators under arbitrary communication delays. Transparency in such systems is compromised in order to maintain stability. We had previously proposed a modified wave variable controller that implemented additional wave impedance in the wave variable transformations in order to focus more closely on force tracking. In this paper, we present a new controller for bilateral teleoperators based on the modified wave variable control method which provides superior position and force tracking performance compared to the traditional wave-variable-based method. Moreover, the method has high stability. Theoretical investigation and experimental results confirm the performance of this new controller.

Force-reflecting teleoperators in which the remote environment is kinesthetically coupled to the operator can considerably increase task performance. However, wave-variable-based controllers can support the stable operation of force-reflecting teleoperators under arbitrary communication delays. Transparency in such systems is compromised in order to maintain stability. In this paper, we present a new controller for bilateral teleoperators based on the wave variable control method which provides superior force tracking performance compared to the traditional wave-variable-based method. Additionally, this method also improves the phase delay induced by the latency in the communication network. Both simulation and experimental results confirm the performance of this new controller.

In minimally invasive telesurgical systems, displaying the forces measured at the slave side is an important issue. Latency in communication lines limits the transmission of vivid tactile sensations and drives the system unstable. In this paper, we propose a new model-based approach for the bilateral control of a telesurgical robot using time-domain passivity control. This method consists of a virtual slave model implemented at the master side to estimate the force on the slave side. During the operation, the estimated force from the virtual slave is added to the actual measured force transmitted from the slave in order to maintain the passivity of the system. Both simulation and experimental results confirm the performance of this new controller.

In the teleoperated minimally invasive surgery systems, measurement and display of sense of force to the operator is a problem. In this paper, we proposed a master-slave system for laparoscopic surgery, which can provide force feedback to the surgeon without using force sensors. Pneumatic cylinders were used as the actuator of the manipulators to achieve this. First, we developed two forceps manipulators to construct a master-slave system which have 4-DOFs at the tip. A bilateral dynamic control system was then designed using a neural network for acquisition of the inverse dynamics. The obtained inverse dynamics was used as a feedforward controller and to estimate the external force from the differential pressure of the cylinders. Experimental results showed that the developed system successfully display the contact force on the slave side to the operator on the master side