Virtual Reality-based Telesurgery via Teleprogramming Scheme Combined with Semi-autonomous Control

Abstract

Telesurgery systems have long been suffering variable and unpredictable Internet commutation time delay, operation fatigue, and other drawbacks. Based on virtual reality technology, a teleprogramming scheme combined with semi-autonomous control is introduced to guarantee the robustness and efficiency of teleoperation of HIT-RAOS, a robot-assisted orthopedic surgery system. In this system, without considering time delay, the operator can just interact with virtual environment which provides real-time 3D vision, stereophonic sound, and tactile and force feedback imitated by a parallel master manipulator. And several tasks can be managed simultaneously via semi-autonomous control. Finally, the method is experimentally demonstrated on an experiment of locking of intramedullary nails, and is shown to effectively provide stability and performances.