M.Thiriet, Editor AUTOMATIC POSITIONING OF SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS DURING LAPAROSCOPIC SURGERY WITH ROBOTS USING AUTOMATIC VISUAL FEEDBACK ∗, ∗∗

Abstract. This paper presents a robotic vision system that automatically retrieves and positions surgical instruments in the robotized laparoscopic surgical environment. The goal of the automated task is to bring the instrument from an unknown or hidden position to a desired location specified by the surgeon on the endoscopic image. To achieve this task, a special instrument-holder is designed that projects laser dot patterns onto the organ surface which are seen on the endoscopic images. Then, the surgical instrument positioning is done using an automatic visual servoing from the endoscopic image. Our approach is successfully validated in a real surgical environment by performing experiments on living pigs in the surgical training room of IRCAD