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We present the design and evaluation of a novel low-cost palpation probe for Robot assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery (RMIS) for localizing subcutaneous blood vessels. It measures probe tip deflection using a Hall Effect sensor as the spherical tip is moved tangentially across a surface under automated control. The probe is intended to be single-use and disposable, built from 3D printed parts and commercially available electronics. The prototype has a cross-section of less than 15mm×10mm and fits on the end of an 8mm diameter needle driver in the Intuitive Surgical da Vinci ^® Research Kit (dVRK). We report experiments for quasi-static sliding palpation with silicone based tissue phantoms with embedded cylinders as subcutaneous blood vessel phantoms. We analyzed signal-to-noise ratios with multiple diameters of silicone cylinders (1.58-4.75 mm) at varying subcutaneous depths (1-5 mm) with a range of …