Robot assisted minimally invasive surgery (R-MIS) provides higher accuracy and repeatability for surgeons and improved patient outcomes. However, R-MIS procedures lack haptic feedback and surgeons rely on visual cues to approximate the force they apply.

Lack of haptic feedback is particularly detrimental when the surgical tool is flexible i.e., a colonoscope. The reduction in rigid transmission of forces increases the likelihood of tissue damage and patient discomfort.

To address this issue, we present a pneumatically actuated haptic feedback glove. The glove receives input from a soft robotic sleeve that can detect incident force on a colonoscope.

Incident force on the robotic sleeve is communicated to the surgeon via proportional inflation of the pneumatic actuators. The surgeon is alerted if they apply excessive force and can take mitigative measures to avoid tissue damage and reduce patient discomfort.

The glove consists of modular actuators unobtrusively wrapped around the base of the fingers. This allows the surgeon to perform dexterous manipulation of surgical tools unhindered. The actuators inflate to a maximum pressure of 50 kPa in 103 ms.

We show the PWM duty cycle of an actuator in response to changes in sensor output during an in-vitro test using a colon model with the soft robotic sleeve wrapped around a colonoscope.