SUMMARYThis paper presents a new type of forceps that consist of two microgrippers with the capability of direct force sensing, which enables grasping and manipulating forces at the tip of surgical instrument for minimally invasive robotic surgery. For the prototype design of the forceps, a double E-type vertical elastomer with four strain beams is presented, whose force-sensing principle is expounded. Thus, the forceps with the elastomer can be considered a compliant component, which provides tiny displacements that allow large strain, and the overall diameter is 10 mm. The sizes of the elastomer and forceps are successively determined by analyzing the relationship of several parameters and strain. Then, the linearity analysis of strain beams determines the positions to apply gauges for sensing. The two-dimensional force decoupling models for a single microgripper are proposed based on piecewise analytical polynomials of the strain difference and employed to develop a new three-dimensional force nonlinear decoupling algorithm based on double microgrippers, which realizes single-axial grasping and three-axial pulling forces. Finally, the required force-sensing performance of the proposed method is successfully verified in theory using finite-element simulations.
