Using the KUKA LBR iiwa Robot as Haptic Device for Virtual Reality Training of Hip Replacement Surgery

We propose to use an industrial redundant manipulator (KUKA LBR iiwa robot) as a haptic device to provide high force feedback for an orthopedic surgeon while performing the reaming of the acetabula in a virtual environment. Real experiments have been performed to validate the virtual reality training framework. The results show that the system resulted to be intuitive and reliable from the users experience.