A haptic interface design for minimally invasive telesurgical training and collaboration in the presence of time delay

In this paper we propose a "shared-control" architecture for design of a haptic interface for hands-on training in minimally invasive surgery. The interface is designed to allow an experienced surgeon mentor a trainee surgeon from a distant location through share-control of a robot performing a surgical procedure. During share-control, the haptic interface provides feedback forces to the surgeons proportional to the difference in their actions and the control authority shared by them. The control authority of the individual surgeons is chosen based on their relative level of experience and can be changed at any time. In this paper we use robust control methods to design stabilizing controllers for the haptic interface assuming time delay in transmission of signals between the surgeons. We use both simulation and experimental results to demonstrate stability of the haptic interface and its suitability for the intended application.