Abstract
The silicone retractor attachable to suction pipe was developed [1]. However, force sensing is also preferable in order to avoid the damage on brain tissue resulted from unexpected large force. With this in mind, this paper presents force sensing system attachable to suction pipe. The developed system has three functions of suction, retracting, force sensing at the same time. The sensing system was based on force visualization mechanism displaying force as a motion of colored poles. From the poles motion, Surgeon can then roughly understand the magnitude of retracting force. With camera in fiberscope, the retracting force can be measured with the resolution of 0.05 [N] until 0.3 [N]. The force visualization part was made of silicone, and then has the merit of disposable, low cost and easy sterilization. We showed the validity of the system by FEM analysis and experiment.
