Tele-training simulation for the surgical robot system ‘‘da Vinci’’ Shigeyuki Suzuki a, * , Naoki Suzuki a , Makoto Hashizume b,c , Yoshihiro Kakeji b , Kozo Konishi b , Asaki Hattori a , Mitsuhiro Hayashibe a a Institute for High Dimensional Medical Imaging, The Jikei University School of Medicine, 4-11-1 Izumihoncho Komae-shi, 201-8601 Tokyo, Japan b Department of Disaster and Emergency Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan c Center for Integration of Advanced Medicine and Innovative Technology, Kyushu University Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan Abstract. Recently, the surgical robot has been applying in clinical situation. However, to achieve this, it is necessary for the surgeon to master and practice the handling of the instrument. This paper describes the development of the tele-training simulator enabling a surgeon to master and practice the techniques for robotic surgery, in particular, the robotic surgery system ‘‘da Vinci’’. In this simulator, the soft tissue model used is a sphere-filled model that is suited for real-time and quantitative deformation. With respect to the haptic device, we used a commercial device known as the ‘‘PHANToM’’ that has gained widespread use. In addition to that, we have tried to construct a training center system enabling the user to simulate surgery from multiple remote access points. As a result, the user can perform a realistic manipulation similar to the da Vinci forceps’ operation. In addition, it allows a user to perform surgical maneuvers such as grasping, pushing and ablation. Moreover, using the broadband line via the Internet, we can perform the tele-virtual training simulation. D 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V. Keywords: Training simulator; Robotic surgery; Soft tissue model 1. Introduction Robotic surgery systems, such as the da Vinci Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical) and the ZEUS Surgical System (Computer Motion), can allow surgeons to conduct minimally invasive surgery with accurate manipulation. However, to apply a surgical robot in a clinical situation, it is necessary for a surgeon to master the handling of the instruments. As you know, Intuitive Surgical has a training program for the da Vinci’s system’s 0531-5131/ D 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V. doi:10.1016/j.ics.2004.03.160 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-3-3480-1151; fax: +81-3-5438-8380. E-mail address: sshige@jikei.ac.jp (S. Suzuki). www.ics-elsevier.com International Congress Series 1268 (2004) 86 – 91