A Novel Acupuncture Needle Based on FBG for Quantitative Evaluation of Expert Manipulations

In the process of acupuncture treatment, it is very important to obtain the pressure information and torque of acupuncture, which can be fed back to the acupuncturist to evaluate the therapeutic effect. At present, most of the sensor needles use resistance strain gauge and piezoelectric ceramic plate to complete force information collection. The above sensors are not only susceptible to the influence of external environment, but their accuracy is not high enough. Therefore, Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is creatively used as the sensor in the field of acupuncture. It also has innovative significance in the field of acupuncture. In this paper, a three-axis force-sensing needle based on flexural hinge and Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is designed to sense the contact force and torque when applying twist stitch method. To ensure the feasibility of the sensor needle, a mathematical model was established and an appropriate stiffness structure was designed. The rationality of the sensor needle was verified by static structure analysis and modal analysis of finite element simulation. Finally, it was proved that the sensor needle could meet the design requirements and complete the task of force sensing.