Sensing slip of grasped wet, conformable objects

Abstract

Grasping and manipulation of biological tissue are crucial processes during minimally invasive surgery (MIS). To enable atraumatic and reliable grasping, it would be useful to detect slip of the grasped object. Because tissue is moist, conformable, and delicate, and because the sensor must work in a surgical environment, this application requires a departure from conventional slip sensing methods. We present a technology and method based on hot-wire anemometry to detect slip while grasping wet, conformable materials and discuss how this approach may be extended to graspers used in robot-assisted surgery (RAS). We present our design and the results from characterization tests as well as experimental results that demonstrate its ability to detect planar direction of slip of wet, compliant objects.