A collision response algorithm for 3D virtual reality minimally invasive surgery simulator

In recent years, rapid development of minimally invasive surgery has taken place. Virtual reality simulator enables the trainees to obtain the core catheter/guide wire handling skills and to decrease the error rate of operation prior to performing them on a real patient. In this paper, we present and evaluate a collision response algorithm and a force feedback computing method for simulating a catheter/guide wire in the interactive 3D virtual realty simulator based on a robotic catheter/guide wire operating system. In order to provide a real-time virtual environment, a multi-threading technology is used to accelerate the medical simulation procedure. Finally, we test the virtual catheter/guide wire with a complex and realistic 3D vascular model, which is generated from computed tomography angiography (CTA) series in DICOM datasets captured in a actual patient. The results show that the collision response algorithm in the system is effective and promising.