3.1. Introduction

For the original dVRK kit, Intuitive Surgical provided two PSMs, two MTMs, a stereo display, a foot pedal tray and sometimes a stereo endoscope. Users were expected to find a way to mount these are on some kind of frame, usually relying on 80/20 aluminum profiles (or equivalent).

Later on, some groups acquired full decommissioned da Vinci Classic (donation, eBay…), including the surgeon’s console and the patient’s cart with its setup joints (SUJ, passive arms supporting the PSMs and ECM). These groups didn’t need to build any frame to support the active arms and needed to interface some existing components found on a full system: head sensor, SUJ, focus controller…

Lately, Intuitive Surgical has been sending gutted Classic and S surgeon’s console with two MTMs, the foot pedal tray and SVGA stereo displays. If this is the case, there is no need to build a frame and one might want to take advantage of the head sensor, focus controller, console height adjustment…

On the patient’s side, the SUJs, PSMs and ECMs provided by Intuitive now come from decommissioned da Vinci Si systems. Some group will receive a full patient cart (with SUJ) while others will receive only the active arms and will therefore need to figure out how to mount them.

Note

As of 2024, there is no dVRK support for the Si/Xi surgeon’s console. So what is commonly referred to as a “dVRK-Si” is usually built around the da Vinci Si patient’s side (SUJ, PSMs, ECM) and a da Vinci S surgeon’s console.

To add to the complexity, Intuitive has over the time donated roughly 3 types of endoscopic cameras and these can be mounted on any generation of ECM.

As such, the steps required to set up a dVRK totally depends on which hardware is available on each site. The only exception is the safety chain (E-Stop) for the dVRK controllers.

The following sections describe how to connect the E-Stop chain and modifications required to set up components from the da Vinci Classic and Si.