Towards robotically assisted electrical bio-impedance acquisitions for soft tissue characterization in surgical applications

Minimally invasive surgical (MIS) applications are among the most challenging scenarios where an intelligent and autonomous surgical robotics system (SRS) could operate. Current human-operated SRS integrates mainly endoscopic video feedback, but more advanced sensing modalities are required to support the execution of complex surgical actions, especially by an autonomous system. In this work, we present the application of an additional sensing modality based on a compact electric bio-impedance (EBI) measurement device that can be integrated into existing surgical instruments with minimum modifications. Reliable soft tissue EBI measurements are hard to be obtained due to the sensitivity of this sensing modality to acquisition pa- rameters. Thus, we propose a robotically assisted EBI acquisition system (REAS) to obtain stable EBI measurements of soft tissue in a userdefined region. We demonstrate the feasibility of the REAS in an ex-vivo experiment using the da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK). The results confirm the capabilities of the proposed method in performing robust EBI data acquisition.