Reviewer 2 of EMBC'18 submission 913

Comments to the author
======================


The authors have created a mechanical system for holding,
manipulating, measuring force, and tracking three surgical
tools - scalpel, retractor and forceps. Further they have
tested each in a reasonable approximation of real surgical
procedures on a cadaver.  They report the design, enough
detail and then overview, and results - force traces during
a procedure (incisions) for the scalpel. The other tools
were used in representative procedures, with the assumption
(not stated) that they performed satisfactorily.  The
authors claim this is an advance in the tools useful for
characterizing haptics and surgical devices and procedures.
 Hence, there is value to the progress reported.


I had to blow up the pictures to 400% to figure out which
were the LEDs. I still don't know where the divots are
although some of the text suggests I should be able to see
them in the figures.

My one concern is whether use of the cadaver was justified.
The authors report appropriate committees have approved the
work. I had expected to have some report of how well the
device worked on test materials and substrates and that
moving to cadaver work added something to what was learned
in the testing beyond what had been previously possible.  I
think the authors should address this issue.

Reference 3 - punctuation