The tactile properties of tissue, such as elasticity and stiffness, often play an important role in surgical oncology when identifying tumors and pathological tissue boundaries. Though extremely valuable, robot-assisted surgery comes at the cost of reduced sensory information to the surgeon, with vision being the primary. Sensors proposed to overcome this sensory desert are often bulky, complex, and incompatible with the surgical workflow. We present PalpAid, a multimodal pneumatic tactile sensor to restore touch in robot-assisted surgery. PalpAid is equipped with a microphone and pressure sensor, converting contact force into an internal pressure differential. The pressure sensor acts as an event detector, while the acoustic signature assists in tissue identification. We show the design, fabrication, and assembly of sensory units with characterization tests for robustness to use, repetition cycles, and integration with a robotic system. Finally, we demonstrate the sensor's ability to classify 3D-printed hard objects with varying infills and soft ex vivo tissues. We envision PalpAid to be easily retrofitted with existing surgical/general robotic systems, allowing soft tissue palpation.

翻译：组织的触觉特性（如弹性和硬度）在肿瘤外科手术中识别肿瘤及病理组织边界时通常起关键作用。虽然极具价值，但机器人辅助手术以牺牲外科医生的感官信息为代价，视觉成为主要信息来源。为克服这一感知荒漠而提出的传感器通常体积庞大、结构复杂，且与手术流程不兼容。我们提出PalpAid——一种用于恢复机器人辅助手术触觉的多模态气动触觉传感器。PalpAid配备麦克风和压力传感器，可将接触力转换为内部压差。压力传感器作为事件检测器，而声学特征则辅助组织识别。我们展示了传感单元的设计、制造与组装过程，并通过特性测试验证其耐用性、重复周期稳定性及与机器人系统的集成能力。最后，我们演示了该传感器对具有不同填充密度的3D打印硬质物体及离体软组织进行分类的能力。我们期望PalpAid能便捷地改造现有手术/通用机器人系统，实现软组织触诊。