Non-situated vibrotactile force feedback and laparoscopy performance

Abstract

Sensory substitution cues have shown to enable force feedback in laparoscopic surgery. However, the sensory cues have been mostly visual, while tactile cues are largely ignored in the context of laparoscopic surgery. Vibrotactile force feedback cues implemented using pancake motors activated at predetermined force levels is tested in this study. Preliminary results show that tactile cues could potentially reduce the incidences of excessive use of force compared to providing visual or visual and tactile cues. However further study is needed to assess the effectiveness of tactile cues