cs.ROSep 27, 2026

Surgical Master Console Using General-Purpose Robot Arms and a Separable Articulated Distal Interface: Porcine In-Vivo Evaluation

Authors: Minsung Kim, Seonho Shim, Dongho Yee, Younghoon Noh, Juahn Oh, Yechan Seo, Jinseok Lee, Jiyul Lee, +4 more

Organizations: Department of Transdisciplinary Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea. · Rosota Inc., Seoul, Republic of Korea. · Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. · Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chungang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. · Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. · Eulji University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Republic of Korea. · Department of Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea. · Interdisciplinary Program in Medical Informatics, Seoul National University College of Medicine. · Institute of Convergence Medicine with Innovative Technology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

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Abstract

High-performance surgical master consoles offer intuitive articulated manipulation but are expensive and difficult to reproduce, while accessible commercial haptic devices lack built-in interfaces for surgical wrist articulation and continuous grasp. We present a laparoscopic master in which general-purpose robot manipulators provide the programmable base and surgical-specific interaction is concentrated in a separable distal adapter. Each 6-DoF arm carries a custom 2-DoF direct-drive wrist, continuous grasp sensing, and clutch-based workspace management; the complete bimanual hardware costs approximately US$5,500, below common bimanual commercial haptic references. To support sustained hand-guided use, we characterize current scaling, gravity, and break-away friction and use them for posture-dependent gravity compensation and motion-gated assistance, reducing continuous actuation and thermal loading. A common master state drives either Isaac Sim or an RCM-constrained dual-FR3 platform. Master-state publication to FR3 target update adds at most 8 ms, and tip tracking shows 0.31-0.66 mm mean delay-aligned residuals. In a porcine cholecystectomy experiment, five common operator-side metrics and hand/tip-speed distributions were compared descriptively with human in-vivo telemetry from 120 clinical Versius recordings of 99 cholecystectomy procedures; no interruption originated from the master console, and no abnormal clinical signs were recorded during the 7-day postoperative observation period. These results demonstrate a surgical master built from general-purpose robot arms with surgical-specific interaction concentrated in a separable distal interface.

Figures & tables

TABLE I: Positioning relative to representative teleoperation approaches.
Fig. 2: System architecture and common endpoint-independent master state. The master console combines a general-purpose 6-DoF robotic leader arm, the custom 2-DoF direct-drive wrist, continuous grasp sensing, and clutch input. These measurements are normalized into a common master state M(t)={Ttool,qwrist,g,c}\mathcal{M}(t)=\{T_{\mathrm{tool}},q_{\mathrm{wrist}},g,c\} . The same state drives either (top) the Isaac Sim branch with FEM soft-tissue organs for cholecystectomy-oriented teleoperation practice or (bottom) the physical branch, where ROS 2/DDS and an endpoint-specific adapter map the operator command to the Franka Research 3 (FR3) laparoscopic platform. Endpoint-specific mapping, safety checks, and the pre-existing 1-kHz RCM controller remain on the patient side.
Fig. 3: Mechanical design and implementation of the custom distal module. (a) Overall flange-mounted module with palm rest and 2-DoF articulated wrist. (b) Passive thumb/index levers, external gear pair, geared-shaft magnet, and sensor board. (c) Section view of the sensor–magnet arrangement; grasp is sampled at 167 Hz. (d) Implemented electronics and operator hand interface.
Fig. 4: Break-away characterization and sustained holding behavior of the direct-drive wrist. (a) Friction and gravity currents separated by bidirectional break-away measurements over 13 roll/yaw wrist postures; friction exceeds gravity throughout the tested workspace. (b) Current-flow duty and estimated copper loss for the earlier current-on implementation and the final motion-gated holding test. (c) Motor-case temperature observations: the earlier current-on baseline rose from 37 ∘ C to 52 ∘ C within 2 min, whereas the final holding test remained near 36 ∘ C over 8 min. The 48 ∘ C dashed line denotes the wrist thermal-protection threshold used to prevent overheating, not an external contact-temperature standard.
Fig. 5: Isaac Sim environment and operator familiarization on the same console. (a) The simulated dual-FR3 laparoscopic setup operating through fixed trocar ports in a phantom containing a simulated gallbladder model, with the endoscopic view at lower right. (b) The veterinarian practicing in the simulator through the same physical master console later used in the porcine experiment; no operator-side hardware or mapping was changed between the two settings.
Fig. 6: Bench evaluation of the physical teleoperation path and master-to-target integration timing. (a) Raw and delay-aligned Cartesian error between the commanded tool-tip target and the measured tip position (FR3 base frame; samples with commanded tip speed >2>2 mm/s) for line, circular, and free 3-D trajectories. (b) Delay-aligned residual statistics. (c) Clutch re-anchoring across four bench trials. (d) Measured timing from master-state publication to FR3 target-command update; the proposed path is ≤8\leq 8 ms and excludes patient-side RCM-controller and actuator response.
Fig. 7: Porcine in-vivo re-anchoring and clinical reference comparison. (a) Instrument drift while the hand is re-centered during 46 valid releases. (b) Target-command discontinuity at re-engagement, in micrometres. (c) Representative release showing centimeter-scale hand motion while the instrument tip remains nearly stationary. (d) Five operator-side metrics—clutch releases per minute, hand re-centring per release, share of console time spent manipulating, grip movements per engaged minute, and handle angular speed—normalized by the median and IQR of 120 human in-vivo Versius recordings (99 cholecystectomy procedures); the blue diamond denotes the proposed console and the light-blue interval its IQR over 2-min windows. (e,f) Cumulative distributions of hand speed and commanded instrument-tip speed; thin gray curves show individual Versius recordings, the dark-gray curve pooled clinical data, and blue the proposed console. The Versius data provide descriptive clinical context rather than a matched benchmark.

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