Design of a Miniature Fiber Optic Sensor to Measure Axial Force at the Tip of a Robotic Flexible Ureteroscope

Abstract

Force sensing has become an important determinant of mitigating tissue injury in robotic flexible ureteroscopy (rFURS), which can improve the ergonomics and the outcome of a treatment of renal or ureteral calculi. This paper introduces the design of a miniature, uniaxial force sensor that uses Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBGs). It measures the axial force applied to its sensing head, and is simple in structure. Specially, it can compensate for the environmental temperature fluctuations by using two FBGs with different center wavelengths. The simulation results with finite element analysis method show that the sensor designed can measure the axial IDOF force with resolution of 0. 01N and a measurement range of around 10N.