An analytical drilling force model and GPU-accelerated haptics-based simulation framework of the pilot drilling procedure for micro-implants surgery training.

The placement of micro-implants is a common but relatively new surgical procedure in clinical dentistry. This paper presents a haptics-based simulation framework for the pilot drilling of micro-implants surgery to train orthodontists to successfully perform this essential procedure by tactile sensation, without damaging tooth roots. A voxel-based approach was employed to model the inhomogeneous oral tissues. A preprocessing pipeline was designed to reduce imaging noise, smooth segmentation results and construct an anatomically correct oral model from patient-specific data. In order to provide a physically based haptic feedback, an analytical drilling force model based on metal cutting principles was developed and adapted for the voxel-based approach. To improve the real-time response, the parallel computing power of Graphics Processing Units is exploited through extra efforts for data structure design, algorithms parallelization, and graphic memory utilization. A prototype system has been developed based on the proposed framework. Preliminary results show that, by using this framework, proper drilling force can be rendered at different tissue layers with reduced cycle time, while the visual display has also been enhanced.