Minimally-invasive robotic surgery is growing and its impact is being felt in many areas, including urology. However, the training standards to ensure the safe and effective implementation of optimal surgical procedures have not yet been fully established. One of the most important reasons is the lack of a realistic in vitro training environment for minimally-invasive surgery.

A virtual reality-based surgical environment offers a digital, interactive, instructor-free and safe surgical training environment. However, its level of realism is lacking. For instance, it suffers from slow or inaccurate estimates for the deformation of organs, a limited interaction between the medical instruments and soft biological tissues, such a general lack of realistic haptic feedback.