The development of internetwork channel emulation platform for surgical robot telemanipulation control system (INSeRT)

In this paper, we describe the RobinHeart surgery robot development related project in which entire robot operation is supposedly done remotely, using wide area network connection. In such environment, any vision and telemanipulation data packets are subject to delay, limitations, issues and failures, as any network connections do. It has become necessary to create an internetwork emulation for the purposes of robot-related trials. The INSeRT platform has been developed to fulfill that role. INSeRT platform design is presented and discussed and first results of validation with real-life example are shown. Network channel manipulation techniques can be implemented at data-link OSI layer level, or it may be induced at network layer level - this approach relies on network layer packet manipulation and poses a promising start, as well as raises questions about whether implementing different distributions for delay or reordering is going to have significant impact on channel emulation and traffic parameters.