Robotics, along with stem-cell research, will drive much of the innovation in medicine in the coming decades. Mohsen Mahvash Mohammady, an assistant research professor at the Engineering Research Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology (ERC CISST) at Johns Hopkins, and a fixture in the haptics lab, says that collaboration is the key to the lab’s success. “Without a doctor’s input, I would be able to develop a nicely controlled robot, but I wouldn’t be able to incorporate what surgeons need,” says Mohammady, who is working on developing haptic scissors, as well as finding the best ways to retrofit the daVinci with the most useful types of force feedback.
Update from John Hopkins engineering school. Haptics for robotic surgery is being investigated in the form of tactile feedback. I think the need for haptics for experienced robotic surgeries is less than most people would think, but it can help. I think for beginners it will help a great deal. Other forms of feedback were discussed as well, the most promising one being visual feedback in the form of color changes as tension increased.
It is likely a few years away, but on the horizon.