Robotic System to Evaluate Force Feedback in Minimally Invasive Computer Aided Surgery

We present an experimental system for robot assisted, minimally invasive surgery that is capable of force measurement and haptic feedback. While minimally invasive surgery with robots provides several advantages like reduced tissue trauma and shorter recovery times, there are also some inherent short-comings. Referring to surgeons, the most significant issue is the lack of haptic feedback. This often causes collateral trauma and leads to prolonged operation time. Therefore we have developed an open platform, which combines the advantages of present systems with the possibility of force reflection. We have included features known from commercial available systems, like full Cartesian control of the end effector, stereo vision and ergonomic input devices. We used the system to perform basic surgical tasks (like knot-tying) and to evaluate force feedback.