EndoPAR: An Open Training System for Minimally Invasive Surgery

Abstract

EndoPAR (Endoscopic Partial-Autonomous Robot) is an open experimental platform for robot assisted minimally invasive heart surgery with haptic feedback.The manipulator set-up is composed of two low-payload robots equipped with sensorized surgical instruments and a third robot carrying a stereo camera system.Trocar kinematics, enabling surgical manipulation through small incisions, has been implemented for all robotic arms.In order to ensure operation close to reality, a thorax and heart phantom for surgical training was used in the experiments.Stereo vision is provided via a head-mounted display and force-reflective input devices are employed for user interaction.The system was evaluated by surgeons and it was capable of performing automated knot-tying.