A Novel Untethered Hand Wearable with Fine-Grained Cutaneous Haptic Feedback

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Haptics
• Surgical Technology

Background:

• Minimally invasive surgery often lacks tactile feedback, limiting surgeon perception.
• Existing haptic systems in laparoscopy primarily focus on force feedback, neglecting cutaneous information.
• There is a need for fine-grained tactile information to improve instrument interaction and tissue characterization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate an untethered, exoskeleton haptic hand wearable for conveying cutaneous feedback in surgical settings.
• To investigate the potential of this wearable to enhance multimodal perception for surgeons.
• To assess the accuracy and latency of the haptic feedback system.

Main Methods:

• Designed a modular, lightweight exoskeleton haptic glove with 80 fingertip actuators for cutaneous feedback.
• Developed software for rapid tactile actuation, enabling users to feel contours.
• Tested the wearable in 2D and 3D virtual environments using a virtual reality headset.

Main Results:

• The haptic glove demonstrated the ability to convey cutaneous feedback for object contours.
• Users achieved 92.22% accuracy in recognizing tactile actuations with a single tap.
• The system exhibited an average latency of 46.5 ms, well within acceptable surgical limits.

Conclusions:

• The proposed untethered haptic hand wearable effectively provides cutaneous feedback, enhancing tactile perception.
• This technology has the potential to significantly improve multimodal sensory information in minimally invasive surgeries.
• The system's low latency and high accuracy suggest its viability for real-world surgical applications.