Deformation of the catheter and 3D blood vessel model for a VR-based Catheter System

There is an increasing realization that Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is a specialized surgical technique that permits vascular interventions through very small incisions. Some operational tasks can be performed significantly better by robots than humans due to associated hazards and distance. However, the significant disadvantage of this surgical technique is its complexity; therefore, extensive training before surgery is necessary. At present, the operator can only determine the required action by visually examining in remote side which limits the task. In this paper, we present virtual reality technology based simulators for doctor training with force feedback in minimally invasive surgery. The simulators allow generating realistic physical-based model of the catheter and blood vessels, and enabling surgeons to touch, feel and manipulate the virtual catheter inside vascular model according to the same surgical operation mode used in actual MIS. The design of the VR system and initial experimental results are presented in experiments part of this paper. And the experimental results show that the error rate varies among an acceptable range and the simulators can be used for surgical training.