Mechatronic prototype for rigid endoscopy simulation

Abstract

Haptic systems include hardware and software components for providing programmable sensations of mechanical nature, such as those related to the sense of touch. This article covers the mechatronic design of a rigid endonasal endoscopy simulator that allows the user to feel force feedback collisions with the anatomical structures during navigation in a virtual environment. The mechatronic system design provides tactile feedback information with three degrees of freedom to the user based on an open loop implemented control. The tests were performed on a computational prototype that allows the visualization of medical image volumes and navigation with collision detection system. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.