A Soft Multi‐Axis High Force Range Magnetic Tactile Sensor for Force Feedback in Robotic Surgical Systems

Muhammad Rehan, Muhammad Mubasher Saleem*, Mohsin Islam Tiwana, Rana Iqtidar Shakoor, Rebecca Cheung

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

This paper presents a multi‐axis low‐cost soft magnetic tactile sensor with a high force range for force feedback in robotic surgical systems. The proposed sensor is designed to fully decouple the output response for normal, shear and angular forces. The proposed sensor is fabricated using rapid prototyping techniques and utilizes Neodymium magnets embedded in an elastomer over Hall sensors such that their displacement produces a voltage change that can be used to calculate the applied force. The initial spacing between the magnets and the Hall sensors is optimized to achieve a large displacement range using finite element method (FEM) simulations. The experimental characterization of the proposed sensor is performed for applied force in normal, shear and 45° angular direction. The force sensitivity of the proposed sensor in normal, shear and angular directions is 16 mV/N, 30 mV/N and 81 mV/N, respectively, with minimum mechanical crosstalk. The force range for the normal, shear and angular direction is obtained as 0–20 N, 0–3.5 N and 0–1.5 N, respectively. The proposed sensor shows a perfectly linear behavior and a low hysteresis error of 8.3%, making it suitable for tactile sensing and biomedical applications. The effect of the material properties of the elastomer on force ranges and sensitivity values of the proposed sensor is also discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3500
JournalSensors
Volume22
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 May 2022

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • elastomer
  • force range
  • Hall sensor
  • magnetic tactile sensor
  • multi‐axis
  • robotic surgery

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