This research focuses on advancing compliant mechanisms to improve force-feedback capabilities of surgical graspers and alike. Current graspers lack force feedback due to conventional rigid-linkage designs that introduce friction and backlash. The result is expensive training and operating systems that attempt to compensate for the lack of intuitive use and force-feedback. Compliant mechanisms offer superior grasping performance based on simplicity and inherent absence of backlash and friction. Proof-of-concept prototypes and commercially available graspers define the state-of-the-art that forms the basis for necessary improvements [1–4].
This paper details a technology demonstrating platform designed to compare various innovative tool tip designs within user experiments, where the influence of different tool tips, balancing stiffnesses, and feedback modularity can be manipulated and experimentally evaluated. The partially compliant static balancing grasper is adapted onto an existing donor instrument for a user-friendly, highly adjustable design with component interchangeability. Experimental results verify the effectiveness of...