Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 20, 2026
Extraction of Venom and Venom Gland Microdissections from Spiders for Proteomic and Transcriptomic Analyses
Published on: November 3, 2014
An integrated pneumatic tactile feedback actuator array for robotic surgery
Miguel L Franco1, Chih-Hung King, Martin O Culjat
1Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology, University of California at Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Background:
A pneumatically controlled balloon actuator array has been developed to provide tactile feedback to the fingers during robotic surgery.
Methods:
The actuator and pneumatics were integrated onto a robotic surgical system. Potential interference of the inactive system was evaluated using a timed robotic peg transfer task. System performance was evaluated by measuring human perception of the thumb and index finger.
Results:
No significant difference was found between performance with and without the inactive mounted actuator blocks. Subjects were able to determine inflation location with > 95% accuracy and five discrete inflation levels with both the index finger and thumb with accuracies of 94% and 92%. Temporal tests revealed that an 80 ms temporal separation was sufficient to detect balloon stimuli with high accuracy.
Conclusions:
The mounted balloon actuators successfully transmitted tactile information to the index finger and thumb, while not hindering performance of robotic surgical movements.
