Abstract
Tactile sensors using organic ferroelectrics are promising from the viewpoint of palpation because poly(vinylidene fluoride) [PVDF] tactile sensors have already been developed to evaluate living tissue. Moreover, vinylidene fluoride (VDF) oligomer is a new substance with a smaller number of VDF units than PVDF. As the piezoelectric coefficient of VDF oligomer is great and its film is thin and uniform, it is suitable for preparation of thinner film tactile sensor. On the other hand, in our previous study, we also developed a computer-based surgical simulator to simulate a catheter and guidewire in blood vessels of the brain. In this study, we investigated the palpation in vivo by the tactile sensor composed of organic ferroelectrics using our catheter/guidewire simulator. Using this simulator, the output of the sensor attached on the guidewire tip was calculated when the proximal part of the guidewire model was pushed and pulled. We used the blood vessel model where the friction coefficient or the stiffness was changed partially assuming that these changes occur by a disease. When the friction coefficient between the guidewire and the vessel was large, the sensor outputs became large. When the stiffness of the vessel was small, the sensor outputs became small.
