Haptically Augmented Teleoperation

Recent progresses in robotic-aided telesurgery help the surgeons to achieve comparable performances during laparoscopic operations and classical open sky procedures. In state of the art systems ([3]), the master console provides a lightweight mechanism whose ergonomy approaches real surgical tools; slave robots are becoming sufficiently dextrous to reproduce the surgeon’s motion with great fidelity; and optical systems and video restitution provide a 3D feedback convincing enough to really immerse the surgeon inside the body of its patient. Thus, the main drawbacks of laparoscopy (limited field of view, awkward tools..) can be overcome. Existing systems, such as the JPL’s RAMS system ([l]), already propose t reinor elimination and scaling of motions, which are considerably useful for applications like micro-surgery in cardiac operations or eye surgery. The purpose of this article is to go beyond the strict master/slave scheme and actually enhance the operator’s capabilities during teleoperation. We focused our work on the implementation of three types of constraints for the operators movements: