Creation of a System for Direct Interaction between a VR Simulator for Communication and Practical Skill Training of Dentists and the KUKA KR-6 Robotic Arm

Abstract

This publication describes an innovative system that directly links a virtual environment created with the Unity game engine to a KUKA KR-6 industrial robotic manipulator. The solution is intended for use in dental education. The key advantage of the new architecture is that it eliminates the need for intermediate software layers: control commands and coordinates are transmitted directly from VR headset controllers to the real robot, without third-party drivers or software bridges. To implement the interaction, a dedicated socket server was developed in C#. This approach achieves high positioning accuracy (error less than 1 millimeter) and minimizes data-transfer latency over the local network. To make training more realistic, the system enables bi-directional data exchange between the real position of the robot “patient” and the virtual space. Three HTC Vive Trackers capture the coordinates of the physical object, which are then automatically mirrored in the Unity virtual scene, ensuring full correspondence between the real and virtual patients. System trials demonstrated stability and the feasibility of integrating the solution into an existing educational VR platform. This will allow students to master the communication and practical skills required for treating chronic fibrous pulpitis. The proposed solution opens new prospects for the use of virtual and mixed reality in medical education and can potentially be adapted to other professional training domains.