Development of a Mixed-Reality Dual-User Training System for Robot Laparoscopic Surgery

As robot surgery becomes more popular these days, it consequently solicits a high demand on its training system. Currently, most of the systems are intended for personal training, while it may be more effective if an experienced expert can also be involved. It thus motivates us to propose a dual-user robotic surgical training system that can closely link the mentor and trainee together. The system is developed in a mixed-reality environment that integrates the information from both the virtual and real worlds. The haptic feedback and virtual fixtures are employed for assistance during skill transfer. The proposed system can assess the proficiency level of the trainee for the mentor to provide proper assistance during training. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system is capable of enhancing the trainee's ability for surgery. Especially, similar effectiveness is observed during comparative studies with direct hands-on guidance frequently adopted for skill transfer during sport training.