Haptic simulation of needle-tissue interaction based on shape matching

Simulating needle-tissue interaction in a haptic-enabled environment is an essential component in many virtual surgical training procedures, where the trainee would practice needle insertion and retraction repeatedly. Efficiency and stability are of major importance for the corresponding visual and haptic rendering. In this paper, we present a novel system for a real-time and robust simulation of needle-tissue interaction with haptic devices. The soft tissue is modeled using the classic shape matching method for its excellent numerical stability. It can interact with a one dimensional inextensible rigid/flexible virtual needle freely. The feedback force from the needle is formulated as the gradient of the potential energy of the soft tissue based on particle constraint. Under the framework of shape matching, the feedback force can be efficiently evaluated and smoothly rendered through haptic devices. Our model can also support various material properties so that tissues of different stiffness can be well handled.