A Magnetorheological Fluid Based Force Feedback Master Robot for Vascular Interventional Surgery

Teleoperated robot system has been adopted in interventional surgeries like cardiac or cerebrovascular diagnoses and treatments. However, it brings confusion and difficulty to surgeons due to the lack of intuitive force feedback from master robot in teleoperated surgeries. In this paper, a force feedback master robot based on magnetorheological fluid dampers is devised to render transparent force feedback to operator. This robot is featured with accurate and fast force regeneration. Force feedback is derived from small scale dampers in this robot, and these dampers are designed with two advantages, high torque accuracy and fast torque response. Different from other work, magnetic reluctance, magnetic field intensity, and low inertia were specially considered during the design of the magnetorheological fluid based damper. A magnetic field simulation verified the correctness of our magnetic field design and model. In addition, an accurate torque model and compensation model for the damper incorporating factors from magnetic field and mechanical property of magnetorheological fluid were proposed. Then, the dampers were manufactured and a prototype of master device was assembled . A series of experiments demonstrated that the damper had superior torque accuracy and fast response time. Thus, this force feedback master robot has a remarkable potential for the vascular interventional surgery.