Virtual reality training simulations to acquire surgical skills are important for increasing patient safety and save valuable resources, e.g., cadavers, supervision and operating room time. However, as surgery is a craft, simulators must not only provide a high degree of visual realism, but especially a realistic haptic behavior. While such simulators exist for surgeries like laparoscopy or arthroscopy, other surgical fields, especially where large forces need to be exerted, like total hip arthroplasty (THA; implantation of a hip joint protheses), lack realistic VR training simulations. In this paper we present for the first time a novel VR training simulation for the five steps of THA (from femur head resection to stem implantation) with realis-tic haptic feedback. To achieve this, a novel haptic hammering device, an upgraded version of the Virtuose 6D haptic device from Haption, novel algorithms for collision detection, haptic rendering, and material removal are introduced. In a study with 17 surgeons of diverse experience levels, we confirmed the realism, usefulness and usability of our novel methods.

Rewarded at Laval Virtual 2014, the AccesSim project aims to develop a wheelchair simulator based on Virtual Reality (VR) and a dynamic force-feedback platform, which allows to experience and to evaluate the accessibility in complex urban or property environment. In order to address this issue, the dynamic force-feedback platform should provide haptic and vestibular feedback to various user profiles: from town-planners to wheelchair users. The platform needs to be modular and adjustable to each of these profiles. This article focuses on the dynamic force-feedback platform and specifically on the force-feedback systems used.

The paper describes the HOMERE system: a multimodal system dedicated to visually impaired people to explore and navigate inside virtual environments. The system addresses three main applications: preparation for the visit of an existing site, training for the use of a blind cane, and ludic exploration of virtual worlds. The HOMERE system provides the user with different sensations when navigating inside a virtual world: a force feedback corresponding to the manipulation of a virtual blind cane, a thermal feedback corresponding to the simulation of a virtual sun, and an auditory feedback in spatialized conditions corresponding to the ambient atmosphere and specific events in the simulation. A visual feedback of the scene is also provided to enable sighted people to follow the navigation of the main user. HOMERE has been tested by several visually impaired people who were all confident about the potential of this prototype.

As nuclear power plants age, maintenance tasks become more critical and more dangerous. In most Western countries today, and perhaps even more in the former East Block, nuclear safety management becomes a major issue. In the next couple of years, strategic decisions have to be made regarding nuclear waste management and dismantling of old equipment. Sadly, most of the dirty work is still done by humans and not by robots. The robotics community has achieved many breakthroughs in the last decade, thanks to the progress of computing power, but their impact has been small in the domain of nuclear intervention. Radiation tolerance implies heavy shielding, which in turn reduces the flexibility of the machine. Looking ahead and striving for a better world, CYBERNETIX has been bringing together the latest advances in radiation-hard electronics, spread-spectrum transmissions and telecontrol technology, onto a single, modular, mobile platform. We present the state of the project and point out the many innovations which have been necessary. We conclude with a short survey of the market, and a tentative glimpse in the future.

Considers the problem of programming a remote intervention robot with a high degree of autonomy and reasoning abilities. The authors propose a control strategy, called task-level teleprogramming, based on a specific architecture. After a brief presentation of their approach, the authors discuss in this paper developments, mainly a teleprogramming language, and illustrate them with an example.>