FORCE ACQUISITION ON SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS FOR VIRTUAL REALITY SURGICAL TRAINING SYSTEM

Abstract

Surgical training is needed for novice surgeons or medical students to get used to surgical instruments and to practice their skills in order to control and manipulate the surgical tools before a real operation on patients. In surgical education, virtual reality (VR) simulation is a new alternative approach for surgeons to learn and determine their level of capability. This study is to introduce force acquisition on surgical instruments that can obtain real force data at human/tool interface. The measuring surgical instruments are developed for two types of operators which are human and robot. The information of force applied by operators on their instruments during cutting pig's meat is capable of being database for realistic force feedback VR simulation. Moreover, the system is a part of virtual reality surgical training system project which the system can provide accurate force feedback to user.