News: Team registration deadline extended to June 1, 2026. Click here for team registration.

Motivation and Objectives

The da Vinci Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA) is currently the most widely deployed surgical robotic platform in clinical operating rooms. Its success has been significantly supported by the da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK), an open-source research platform that repurposes retired clinical da Vinci systems for research use. The dVRK has been adopted by approximately 41 institutions worldwide and has enabled substantial progress in surgical robotics research.

However, access to dVRK hardware remains limited to a small number of well-resourced institutions. Researchers without access to dVRK platforms face significant barriers to contributing to robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RAMIS). A main reason is that the dVRK is specifically designed for laparoscopic surgery, whereas many research laboratories only have access to general-purpose serial robotic manipulators.

Motivated by this disparity, this competition aims to bridge the gap between general-purpose robotic platforms and surgical robotic systems. The proposed challenge focuses on performing laparoscopic manipulation tasks using general-purpose robotic systems, thereby democratizing research opportunities in surgical robotics and teleoperation.

Software Environment

• Ubuntu 64-bit operating system

• A basic development package will be provided to the participating teams.

Task Description

• A peg-transfer board with two stacked levels will be fixed inside a box representing the abdominal cavity. Several small openings on the top surface mimic trocar ports in laparoscopic surgery (Fig. 1).

• Participants use a haptic device with non-dominant hand to teleoperate the robot and transfer as many pegs as possible from the lower level to the upper level within a 3-minute time limit.

• Collisions between the tool and the environment are allowed as long as they are within a threshold.

Tool Design Challenge

As part of the competition, the participating teams need to design their own grasping tool that can be coupled to the flange of the physical Franka robot. The instructions for the tool design challenge are listed below,

• Simple and reliable tool design is encouraged.

• The teams may use (but are not limited to) the following open-source dVRK tool adaptor. 

• The teams are also encouraged to design their own tool that can be coupled to the flange of the physical Franka robot, and execute the actions of pick-and-place.

• The flange size of the Franka Research 3 robot can be found on their website, as well as comprehensive details about the robot, including CAD models.

Rules and Requirements

• The final competition will be conducted on-site.

• Each team will have 30 minutes of familiarization time before the competition.

• Each team will have 30 minutes total competition time.

- A 3-minute task timer will be set for an attempt/trial.

- Teams may repeat attempts/trials within their session, but only the final attempt/trial will be scored.

• The robot needs to be reset to its home position before each attempt/trial.

• Real-time data streams during the competition may need to be logged and stored in CSV format.

Format

The competition will include two progress checkpoints prior to the on-site final.

• Simulation & Experimental checkpoint #1: 10% of final score

• Simulation & Experimental checkpoint #2: 10% of final score

Teams must submit required materials at each checkpoint to accumulate scores toward the final competition.

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Questions?

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about the competition.

Join the Challenge!