A semi-passive haptic device for viscosity display in virtual bone cement injection

This paper introduces a novel semi-passive haptic device for viscosity display in virtual bone cement injection. This system-level design combines the inherent safety of a passive elastic element with the accurate control of an active motor to achieve injection force feedback over a wide force range (0–40 N) and stroke length (up to ∼32 mm). The device employs a linear push paradigm consistent with clinical percutaneous vertebroplasty procedures, contributing to an immersive and intuitive feel for surgical simulation. This delivers realistic haptic experiences that represent different phases of bone cement injection within a simulated environment. A system identification method and parameter optimization were proposed to align theoretical models with physical performance, achieving an average RMSE of 0.08 N across 218 test cases. We conducted experiments to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the proposed device by displaying interaction forces for different configurations. Our experimental results show that this compact, low-power design provides a safe and procedurally realistic simulation of bone cement injection in the virtual environment.