RedDRAGON

Abstract

The Red Dragon is a system that tracks the motion of two minimally invasive tools along with all the force and toques applied on the tools by the surgeon as he or she interacts with the simulated or animal models. The Red Dragon unique mechanism allows crossing the various training modalities while providing a standard interface. It follows the trainee as he or she progresses from a simulation environment to the reality (animal model) while providing quantitative information for objectively assessing the trainee’s technical skills. The Red Dragon unique spherical mechanism with its remote center of rotation enables its unique capability to cross the versions domains of MIS training.

The two mechanisms are equipped with three classes of sensors: (i) position sensors (multi turn potentiometers - Midori America Corp.) are incorporated into the mechanisms' joints for measuring the positions, the orientations and the translation of the two instrumented endoscopic tools attached to them. In addition, two potentiometer that are attached to the tools' handle are used for measuring the endoscopic handle and tool tip angles; (ii) three-axis force/torque (F/T) sensors (ATI-Mini sensor) are located at the proximal end of the endoscopic tools' shaft, as well as force sensors inserted into the tools' handles for measuring the grasping forces at the hand/tool interface and (iii) contact sensors providing binary indication of any tool/tissue contact. Data measured by the BlueDRAGONs' sensors are acquired using two 12-bit National Instruments USB A/D cards sampling the 26 channels (4 rotations, 2 translations, 1 tissue contact, and 7 channels of forces and torques from each instrumented grasper) at 30 Hz. In addition to the data acquisition, the synchronized view of the surgical scene is incorporated into a graphical user interface displaying the data in real-time.

The BlueDRAGON system integration into a minimally invasive surgery setup

The kinematics and the dynamics of Minimally Invasive surgery - Objective assessment of surgical Performance Using Markov Models

(*) Note: Most of the BRL publications are available on-line in a PDF format. You may used the publication's reference number as a link to the individual manuscript.

Rosen J., J. D. Brown, L. Chang, M. Sinanan B. Hannaford, Generalized Approach for Modeling Minimally Invasive Surgery as a Stochastic Process Using a Discrete Markov Model, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering Vol. 53, No. 3, March 2006, pp. 399 - 413

[M006]
J. Brown, J. Rosen, B. Hannaford, M. Sinanan, 'A Passive Mechanical Pantograph System for Measuring Tool Position During Minimally Invasive Surgery (Poster),' BMES 2000, Biomedical Engineering Society, Annual Meeting. Annals of Bioengineering, vol. 28, Supplement 1, Seattle, WA, October 2000.

[M008]
J.D. Brown, J. Rosen, J. Longnion, M. Sinanan, B. Hannaford, 'Design and Performance of a Surgical Tool Tracking System for Minimally Invasive Surgery,' Engineering Congress and Exposition: Advances in Bioengineering, BED, vol. 51, pp. 169-170, ASME, New York, Nov. 11-16, 2001.

[155]
J. Rosen, J.D. Brown, M. Barreca, L. Chang, B. Hannaford, M. Sinanan, 'The Blue DRAGON - A system for Monitoring the Kinematics and Dynamics of Endoscopic Tools in Minimally Invasive Surgery for Objective Laparoscopic Skill Assessment,' Studies in Health Technology and Informatics - Medicine Meets Virtual Reality, vol. 85, pp. 412-418, IOS Press, Newport Beach, CA, January 2002.

[157]
J. Rosen, J.D. Brown, L. Chang, M. Barreca, M. Sinanan, B. Hannaford, 'The BlueDRAGON - A System for Measuring the Kinematics and the Dynamics of Minimally Invasive Surgical Tools In Vivo,' Proc. Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation ICRA-2002, pp. 1876-1881, Arlington VA, May, 2002.