Amanda Getnzel: Extending the simulation of the Raven Surgical Robot System

Extending the Simulation of the Raven Surgical Robot System

Amanda Gentzel, Jacob Rosen

Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz

Surgical robots are receiving attention because they allow surgery to be performed remotely.  This allows patients to receive surgery in places that lack the required surgeons or that are remote and inaccessible, such as the battlefield.  The Raven Surgical Robot System is comprised of four robotic arms with surgical tools that can be controls using haptic devices.  This allows for the arms to be operated remotely and allows two surgeons to operate collaboratively, each controlling two arms.  In order to effectively use the robots, training is required, but access to the actual robotic arms can be limited.  For training, then, a simulation can be used.  This project involved extending the existing simulation of the Raven Surgical Robot System.  The simulation was extended to include all four arms, and SolidWorks representations of the arms were added to increase the realism.  In addition, a simple surgical training task was added, allowing the user to pick up and move small objects on a peg board.