On the Design and Implementation of a Mixed-Platform Collaborative Virtual RAS Planner

Featured Application We present the ViPRAS system (Virtual Planning for Robotic-Assisted Surgery). It is the result of the project of the same name, in which we combine the advantages of collaborative virtual spaces with robot-assisted surgery. The system is designed to facilitate the surgical planning process through a virtual recreation of both the patient and the surgical robot. We believe this approach could improve surgical planning, allowing for better surgeries and thus better patient recovery.Abstract Robotic Assisted Surgery (RAS) represents an important step forward in the field of minimally invasive surgery. However, the learning curve of RAS is steep, and a systematic planning of surgical robot setups should be performed to leverage the features of RAS. For this reason, in this paper we show the design and implementation of a mixed-platform collaborative system, creating an interactive virtual shared environment that simulates RAS during the surgery planning phase. The proposed system allows one or more experts to plan together the different phases of an RAS-based surgical procedure, while integrating different levels of immersion to enhance computer-assisted training. We have tested our system with a total of four domain experts. Our results show that experts found the system excellent in terms of usability and useful to prepare and discuss surgical planning with RAS.