Real-to-Sim Deformable Object Manipulation: Optimizing Physics Models with Residual Mappings for Robotic Surgery

Understand

Accurate deformable object manipulation (DOM) is essential for achieving autonomy in robotic surgery, where soft tissues are being displaced, stretched, and dissected.

• Many DOM methods can be powered by simulation, which ensures realistic deformation by adhering to the governing physical constraints and allowing for model prediction and control.
• However, real soft objects in robotic surgery, such as membranes and soft tissues, have complex, anisotropic physical parameters that a simulation with simple initialization from cameras may not fully capture.
• To use the simulation techniques in real surgical tasks, the "real-to-sim" gap needs to be properly compensated.