# Caveats on the first-generation da Vinci Research Kit: latent technical constraints and essential calibrations

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.13598 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.13598/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 24 Oct 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Surgical Robot Transformer (SRT): Imitation Learning for Surgical Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.12998/) (2024)
- [SurgT challenge: Benchmark of Soft-Tissue Trackers for Robotic Surgery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.03022/) (2023)
- [SurgRIPE challenge: Benchmark of Surgical Robot Instrument Pose Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.02990/) (2025)
- [SurgCalib: Gaussian Splatting-Based Hand-Eye Calibration for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.08983/) (2026)
- [SurfSurg6D: Geometry Consistent Dense Correspondence for Textureless Surgical Instrument Pose Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.25598/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Telesurgical robotic systems provide a well established form of assistance in the operating theater, with evidence of growing uptake in recent years. Until now, the da Vinci surgical system (Intuitive Surgical Inc, Sunnyvale, California) has been the most widely adopted robot of this kind, with more than 6,700 systems in current clinical use worldwide [1]. To accelerate research on robotic-assisted surgery, the retired first-generation da Vinci robots have been redeployed for research use as "da Vinci Research Kits" (dVRKs), which have been distributed to research institutions around the world to support both training and research in the sector. In the past ten years, a great amount of research on the dVRK has been carried out across a vast range of research topics. During this extensive and distributed process, common technical issues have been identified that are buried deep within the dVRK research and development architecture, and were found to be common among dVRK user feedback, regardless of the breadth and disparity of research directions identified. This paper gathers and analyzes the most significant of these, with a focus on the technical constraints of the first-generation dVRK, which both existing and prospective users should be aware of before embarking onto dVRK-related research. The hope is that this review will aid users in identifying and addressing common limitations of the systems promptly, thus helping to accelerate progress in the field.