A tele-micro-surgery system across the Internet with a fixed viewpoint/operation-point

This paper describes the necessary functions and the construction of a micro-surgery system which can be operated from a separate place. In particular, a vision system which has a fixed visual point and a slave manipulator, which has the same fixed point at the end of the tool, are proposed. In the vision system, the axes of all rotational degrees of freedom intersect at the focal point of the microscope. In the slave manipulator, the axes of all rotational degrees of freedom also intersect at this point. These mechanisms provide high accessibility to small objects independent of the approach angle from the microscope and the manipulator to the object. Another feature of the system is the transformation of multi-axis force to auditory information to enhance the operability of the system by indicating the contact state of the end-effector and object. Furthermore, the visual information acquisition and display systems are controlled in accordance with the inferred intention of the operator. Finally, a tele-micro-handling experiment was performed using the Internet and two artificial satellites