Development of a Surgical Support Simulator Implementing Force Feedback

Abstract

Surgical robots have greatly advanced minimally invasive surgery, yet their evaluation typically focuses on mechanical performance and the robot operator, and simulators are needed to experiment under a variety of conditions. This study aims to develop a surgical simulator with force feedback, replicating real surgical conditions. First, the surgical environment and surgical procedures to be reproduced by the surgical simulator were determined Second, an approximate equation representing the relationship between stress and strain was obtained from the stress-strain diagram of the tissue. Finally, the frictional force between the forceps and the needle was calculated based on the balance of forces applied to the needle, and force feedback was returned.