This paper presents a novel Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG)-based palpation force sensor to explore tissue abnormalities during minimally invasive surgery. The proposed sensor design mainly consists of a miniature force-sensitive flexure, one tightly suspended optical fiber embedded with one FBG element and associated connectors and fixations. The flexure design has been prototyped through the configuration synthesis of Sarrus mechanism by using a rigid-body replacement method to achieve an excellent axial linear force-deformation relationship and a large measurement range. The mounted fiber has been configured at the flexure's central line with its two ends glued, and its tight suspension configuration can achieve improved resolution and sensitivity and avoid the FBG chirping failure compared to the commonly used direct FBG-pasting methods. Finite element method (FEM)-based simulation has been performed to investigate both static and dynamic performance to aid in structural design. Simulation-enabled structural optimization design has also been implemented to further improve the proposed design and the sensor's sensitivity has been increased. The optimized sensor design has been prototyped and calibrated to demonstrate an excellent linearity with a small linearity error of 0.97% and achieve a high resolution of 2.55 mN within a relatively large measurement range of 0-5 N. Dynamic force stimulation experiments, in vitro palpation implementation on a silicone phantom embedded with simulated tumors and ex vivo indentation experiments on a porcine liver have validated the effectiveness of the presented sensor design.

中文翻译：

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一种基于微型光纤布拉格光栅的力传感器，用于微创手术中的组织触诊。

本文提出了一种新颖的基于光纤布拉格光栅（FBG）的触诊力传感器，以探索微创手术期间的组织异常。拟议的传感器设计主要包括一个微型力敏挠曲，一根嵌有一个FBG元件的紧密悬挂的光纤以及相关的连接器和固定装置。通过使用刚体置换方法，通过Sarrus机构的构造综合，对挠性设计进行了原型设计，以实现出色的轴向线性力-变形关系和较大的测量范围。已安装的光纤已配置在挠曲件的中心线，两端胶合，并且与常用的直接FBG粘贴方法相比，其紧密的悬挂配置可提高分辨率和灵敏度，并避免FBG鸣叫失败。已经进行了基于有限元方法（FEM）的仿真，以研究静态和动态性能，以帮助进行结构设计。还实现了具有仿真功能的结构优化设计，以进一步改善建议的设计，并提高了传感器的灵敏度。经过优化的传感器设计已通过原型设计和校准，以显示出出色的线性度和0.97％的小线性误差，并在0-5 N的较大测量范围内实现了2.55 mN的高分辨率。动态力刺激实验，体外触诊在嵌入了模拟肿瘤的硅树脂幻影上的实现以及在猪肝上的离体压痕实验已经验证了所提出的传感器设计的有效性。