A common limitation of autonomous tissue manipulation in robotic minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is the absence of force sensing and control at the tool level. Recently, our team has developed miniature force-sensing forceps that can simultaneously measure the grasping and pulling forces during tissue manipulation. Based on this design, here we further present a method to automate tissue traction that comprises grasping and pulling stages. During this process, the grasping and pulling forces can be controlled either separately or simultaneously through force decoupling. The force controller is built upon a static model of tissue manipulation, considering the interaction between the force-sensing forceps and soft tissue. The efficacy of this force control approach is validated through a series of experiments comparing targeted, estimated, and actual reference forces. To verify the feasibility of the proposed method in surgical applications, various tissue resections are conducted on ex vivo tissues employing a dual-arm robotic setup. Finally, we discuss the benefits of multi-force control in tissue traction, evidenced through comparative analyses of various ex vivo tissue resections with and without the proposed method, and the potential generalization with traction on different tissues. The results affirm the feasibility of implementing automatic tissue traction using miniature forceps with multi-force control, suggesting its potential to promote autonomous MIS. A video demonstrating the experiments can be found at https://youtu.be/f5gXuXe67Ak.

翻译：机器人微创手术（MIS）中自主组织操作的一个常见局限是器械末端缺乏力感知与控制能力。近期，我们团队开发了一种微型力传感钳，能够在组织操作过程中同步测量夹持力与牵拉力。基于此设计，本文进一步提出一种实现组织牵引自动化的方法，该方法包含夹持与牵拉两个阶段。在此过程中，通过力解耦技术，可对夹持力与牵拉力进行独立或同步控制。力控制器建立在组织操作的静态模型之上，该模型考虑了力传感钳与软组织间的相互作用。通过一系列对比目标力、估计力与实际参考力的实验，验证了该力控制方法的有效性。为验证所提方法在外科应用中的可行性，采用双臂机器人系统在离体组织上进行了多种组织切除实验。最后，我们通过对比分析采用与未采用所提方法的各类离体组织切除实验，以及在不同组织上进行牵引的潜在泛化能力，论证了多力控制在组织牵引中的优势。实验结果证实了使用具备多力控制功能的微型钳实现自动组织牵引的可行性，表明该方法具有推动自主微创手术发展的潜力。实验演示视频可见：https://youtu.be/f5gXuXe67Ak。