Realistic Haptic Feedback for Material Removal in Medical Simulations

We present a novel haptic rendering method to simulate material removal in medical simulations at haptic rates. The core of our method is a new massively-parallel continuous collision detection algorithm in combination with a stable and flexible 6-DOF collision response scheme that combines penalty- and constraint-based force computation. Moreover, a volumetric object representation of the 3D objects allows us to derive a realistic local material model from experimental human cadaveric data, as well as support real-time continuous material removal. We have applied our algorithm to a hip replacement simulator and two dentistry-related simulations for root-canal opening and caries removal. The results show realistic continuous forces and torques at haptic rates.