Laboratory-level telesurgery with industrial robots and haptic devices communicating via the internet

Abstract

With recent advances in data communications and robotic engineering, surgical robots have evolved into telerobotic surgical platforms that permit surgeons to operate on patients from remote locations using robotic instruments. Even so, telesurgical systems need to be improved by considering haptic sense or force feedback. In this study, a laboratory-level telesurgical system with force feedback was developed using industrial robots and commercial haptic systems operating over the Internet. Telesurgery via high-bandwidth UDP/IP communication was successfully conducted on objects mimicking human organs by the surgical robot system commanded by a surgeon 40 km away. During the test experiment, the surgeon could feel the interaction between the instruments and the tissues. The time delay was less than 45 ms with very little discrepancy between the command of the haptic device and the movement of the robot. This technology is useful for developing a clinically applicable telesurgical robot system that could be used in various emergency situations