SUGAR’s objective is the development of an augmented reality (AR) system for minimally-invasive robotic-assisted spinal surgeries. It is agreed that AR has potential to foster the adoption of minimally invasive surgery (MIS), but it suffers from technical problems for which no suitable solutions exist: insufficient tracking precision, complex workflows, low framerates and lack of visualisation of intra-operative variables.

The SUGAR project proposes a groundbreaking solution to these problems by combination of an AR head-mounted display with a novel electromechanical tracker -capable of following the patient motion with high accuracy and simplifying surgical workflow avoiding manual input- and the use of cutting-edge volume rendering algorithms, able to produce realistic renderings at low framerates and with natural visualisation of intra-operative information.

The solution proposed by SUGAR has the potential to transform the way in which MIS is approached and revolutionise robotic surgery.