Development of an inter-world tele-micro-surgery system with operational environment information transmission capability

This paper describes the necessary functions and the basic structure of a tele-micro-surgery system. In particular, the system is comprised of a vision system which is focused at the end of a surgical tool and a slave manipulator, the rotational axes of which intersect at the same focal point. These mechanisms realize high positionability that is independent of the approach angle from the microscope and the manipulator to the small object that is being operated on. The system also incorporates the transformation of multi-axis force information to sounds that can be easily interpreted by the operator to indicate the contact state between the tool and the object. Furthermore, an inter-world tele-micro-handling experiment has been executed successfully from a remote site using the Internet and two artificial satellites