Intuitive Foundation: The da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK) Program Grant

The da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK) Program, supported by the Intuitive Foundation, promotes innovative research in telerobotic surgery by providing access to repurposed da Vinci Surgical System hardware. This collaborative platform enables institutions worldwide to explore advancements in minimally-invasive surgical techniques and instrumentation. Non-profit educational and research entities can apply for hardware, facilitating the development and testing of cutting-edge surgical prototypes while adhering to strict non-clinical use guidelines.

The da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK) is a community effort supporting research in the field of telerobotic surgery. The Intuitive Foundation supports this effort by facilitating the use of hardware from retired da Vinci Surgical Systems that can be repurposed to assemble research platforms that explore innovative new concepts in minimally-invasive surgery. This shared research platform supports collaboration across university groups to stimulate and accelerate research in the field.
At present, there are dVRKs at more than 30 universities in 10 countries worldwide. These kits support a broad range of research, from the exploration of innovative new ways of performing information- and image-guided surgeries to developing novel surgical instrumentation, innovative user interfaces, and even futuristic surgical task automation methods and their potential impacts.
The Intuitive Foundation supports this research community by expanding access to capable research platforms in order to foster collaboration and the efficient translation of ideas from research to practice.
The dVRK contains several of the fundamental components of a robot-assisted minimally-invasive surgery system, including instrument manipulators as well as surgeon interface elements such as a stereo viewer along with hand and foot-pedal controls. These components can be combined to build a functional telerobotic surgery system that can be customized for non-clinical research. The dVRK should not be considered a turn-key system. Rather, it is a series of building blocks that multi-disciplinary engineering teams can use to build and test research prototypes.

Eligibility

Non-profit education and research institutions are eligible to apply for dVRK hardware and support.
Hardware may not be available in all geographic regions, due to import restrictions.Grantees agree to keep donated hardware at the awarded institution unless authorized in writing to move the hardware to a new institution.
The research team should possess hardware and software engineering capabilities, as well as resources to build and maintain a complex research platform.Grantees agree in good faith to participate in annual principal investigator meetings and community events. These are typically hosted at popular robotics conferences.

Ineligibility

Donated equipment is “Not for Clinical Use” and must not be placed in a hospital operating room for use with human patients.