Collision avoidance in robot assisted surgery

The use of surgical robots is growing in order to solve some of the problems encountered in endoscopic surgery. But the use of robots also introduces new problems to the surgical procedure like collision between robotic arms or between instruments. To reduce these problems a prototype of a collision warning system is made. The positions of the robots are measured in real-time and the distances between them are calculated. Before a collision occurs a warning is given. Different types of feedback to the surgeon are tested. The prototype is shown to work properly and give valuable information to the surgeon.