Using physx for simulation-based endoscopic hardware design

Computer-assistance becomes increasingly important in minimally invasive surgery. Automation and image-processing techniques are employed for assisting surgeons with their highly skilled tasks. Our research is aimed at developing a novel system for laparoscopic surgery consisting of a new type of endoscope and augmented reality components. In order to facilitate the design of the hardware and the algorithms, we developed a virtual endoscopy simulator. It utilizes the capabilities of NVIDIA's physics engine "PhysX" for simulating the physical behavior of soft tissue, instruments, and smoke. In this paper, we present our proposed solutions for modeling the objects using PhysX and discuss possible problems specific to the domain of medical simulation.