High fidelity haptic rendering for deformable objects undergoing topology changes

Abstract

The relevance of haptic feedback for minimally invasive surgery has been demonstrated at numerous counts. However, the proposed methods often prove inadequate to handle correct contact computation during the complex interactions or topological changes that can be found in surgical interventions. In this paper, we introduce an approach that allows for accurate computation of contact forces even in the presence of topological changes due to the simulation of soft tissue cutting. We illustrate this approach with a simulation of cataract surgery, a typical example of microsurgery.