cutaneous afferents

This study tests whether an algorithm that simulates the responses peripheral touch receptors improves performance compared to standard algorithms in a tumor detection task, tested using a combination of vibration and force feedback with a da Vinci surgical robot. The novel bio-inspired algorithm was the only one that allowed both novices and expert robot-assisted surgeons to easily identify the locations of hard, medium and soft tumors and did so with reduced contact force and tumor contact time. Although tested with only a single sensor and actuator of each class, it can easily scale up for greater coverage and sensitivity. read more