GPU haptic simulation of soft tissues deformation for spinal surgery training simulator

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OSSim Technologies (hereinafter named OSSim), as a private Canadian technology company, positions itself as a pioneer and leader in Virtual Reality (VR)-based open orthopaedic surgeries designed for the training of medical students and orthopaedic residents. Its first product, Sim-K simulator enables simulation training for the total knee replacement procedure. OSSim is currently developing a VR training simulator for complex open surgeries of the spine which requires a new real-time physics-based simulation technique for deformable soft tissues. The motivation of this research is the growing need for robust soft tissues modelling capabilities in complex interactive surgical simulation and time critical applications. Finite elements (FE) modeling, as an accurate continuum mechanics based methodology, will be adopted in order to realistically model the behaviour of the spinal cord, nerve roots, and intervertebral disks combined with the most recent Graphical Process Unit (GPU) technology implementation in order to achieve high frequency update rate that is necessary for haptic rendering. Areas of surgical real-time simulation including soft tissues deformation, contact modelling and cutting, rely on GPU implementations to significantly improve computational times. The choice of this integration scheme combining FE modelling technique and GPU computational approach will offer the best trade-off between robustness, stability, and computing time. As for the spinal surgery simulator, haptic devices will be incorporated for an immersive experience with tactile, visual and audio feedback. Incorporation of haptics within GPU-based soft tissues models will impose an additional computational cost and challenge, given that the force feedback in a realistic haptic simulation requires frequencies higher than 300Hz, versus the 30-60 Hz used in graphics. However, such a real-time soft tissue platform would allow residents to train on a realistic environment. OSSim will exploit the research results in Montreal and successful outcomes from the GPU-based models implementation will allow development of highly realistic medical training simulators and creation of highly qualified jobs in engineering, quality, manufacturing, sales and marketing.