An anthropomorphic surgical simulator arm based on series elastic actuators with haptic feedback

We present a surgical simulator (Epsilon-1, which was designed using series elastic actuators (SEA) with off-the-shelf components. This low-cost alternative provides surgical training to surgeons by providing haptic feedback from an environment simulated by physics engines. We describe the hardware and software architecture of the surgical trainer arm in this paper. This is the first Anthropomorphic surgical arm because its dimensions and motions are of anthropomorphic nature. We present here our intuitive software simulation environment that gives multiple views for the comfort of the surgeon trainee.