1. Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences
  2. School of Mechanical Engineering
  3. Research and innovation
  4. Institute of Design, Robotics and Manufacturing
  5. Research projects
  6. Accelerating surgical training

Research project

Accelerating surgical training

  • Start date: 1 January 2010
  • End date: 1 January 2014
  • Primary investigator: Professor Peter Culmer
  • Co-investigators: Dr Faisal Mushtaq, Dr Earle Jamieson
  • Postgraduate students: Jack Brookes

surgical robot

Modern surgical training is being forced to quickly adapt in light of increasingly complex procedures, restrictions on ‘hands-on’ training in the theatre and a need to objectively measure surgical proficiency.

Haptic Accelerated Training: The aim of this project is to understand how haptic technologies can improve motor learning. We are developing delivery of force fields through haptic robotic systems, including the MOOG Simodont dental trainer system. These systems will be used to further develop and test new adaptive algorithms for controlling the force fields.

The work is being conducted in close collaboration with the School of Dentistry the Institute of Psychological Sciences, at Leeds to allow students and the university to benefit from more efficient learning.

This use of movement manipulation could also be implemented into a wide range of VR training equipment worldwide across a variety of disciplines in order to improve surgical training and rehabilitation.