A Soft Robotic Haptic Feedback Glove for Colonoscopy Procedures

This paper presents a proof-of-concept soft robotic glove that provides haptic feedback to the surgeon's hand during interventional endoscopy procedures, specifically colonoscopy. The glove is connected to a force sensing soft robotic sleeve that is mounted onto a colonoscope. The glove consists of pneumatic actuators that inflate in proportion to the incident forces on the soft robotic sleeve. Thus, the glove is capable of alerting the surgeon of potentially dangerous forces exerted on the colon wall by the colonoscope during the navigation. The proposed glove is adaptable to a variety of hand sizes. It features modular actuators that facilitate convenient and rapid assembly and attachment before the procedure and removal afterward. The glove is calibrated to respond to incident forces on the soft robotic sleeve ranging from 0–3 N. The glove's actuators are able to reach an internal pressure of 53 kPa and exert forces up to 20 N, thereby relaying and amplifying the force exerted by the colonoscope on the colon to the surgeon's hand.