1.3. How to get a dVRK?

There are three main sources for the first part of the kit, i.e., retired parts of da Vinci systems:

• The vast majority of dVRK groups received their retired robots through the Intuitive Foundation.

• Some groups also salvaged retired da Vincis directly from a hospital (often affiliated to their university). If you have any ongoing collaboration with a hospital with a da Vinci system, it is worth asking them what they plan to do with it when it will be retired. Note that all the instruments and other disposable parts are also very useful, so it’s worth saving as much as possible.

• Finally, it is possible to find full da Vinci systems or da Vinci parts at a reasonable price on auctions sites such as eBay.

The second part of the kit is the dVRK controllers. If you reached out to the Intuitive Foundation for the mechanical systems, they will help you figure out how to acquire the controllers. Otherwise, you can reach out to the dVRK developers. Alternatively, since the design is open source, you can manufacture your own controllers. This is, by far, a much more difficult approach, but we know of at least one group that went that way (#21).

Everything else, computers, cables, display, mounts… can be bought on the internet. All the mechatronics designs, firmware, software and documentation are hosted on public repositories on GitHub.