# Real-to-Sim Deformable Object Manipulation: Optimizing Physics Models with Residual Mappings for Robotic Surgery

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.11656 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.11656/

## Key facts

- Cited by 11 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 20 Sep 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [GIC: Gaussian-Informed Continuum for Physical Property Identification and Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.14927/) (2024)
- [MASIV: Toward Material-Agnostic System Identification from Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01112/) (2025)
- [MOSIV: Multi-Object System Identification from Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.06022/) (2026)
- [BASED: Bundle-Adjusting Surgical Endoscopic Dynamic Video Reconstruction using Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.15329/) (2023)
- [LiteTracker: Leveraging Temporal Causality for Accurate Low-latency Tissue Tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.09904/) (2025)
- [A Distributional Treatment of Real2Sim2Real for Object-Centric Agent Adaptation in Vision-Driven Deformable Linear Object Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.18615/) (2025)
- [SurgIRL: Towards Life-Long Learning for Surgical Automation by Incremental Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.15651/) (2024)
- [Online camera-pose-free stereo endoscopic tissue deformation recovery with tissue-invariant vision-biomechanics consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.19388/) (2025)
- [Posterior-driven Heuristic Support Adaptation in a Probabilistic Treatment of Real2Sim2Real for Vision-Driven Deformable Linear Object Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.26656/) (2025)
- [DexKnot: Generalizable Visuomotor Policy Learning for Dexterous Bag-Knotting Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.07136/) (2026)
- [arg-VU: Affordance Reasoning with Physics-Aware 3D Geometry for Visual Understanding in Robotic Surgery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.26814/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Accurate deformable object manipulation (DOM) is essential for achieving autonomy in robotic surgery, where soft tissues are being displaced, stretched, and dissected. Many DOM methods can be powered by simulation, which ensures realistic deformation by adhering to the governing physical constraints and allowing for model prediction and control. However, real soft objects in robotic surgery, such as membranes and soft tissues, have complex, anisotropic physical parameters that a simulation with simple initialization from cameras may not fully capture. To use the simulation techniques in real surgical tasks, the "real-to-sim" gap needs to be properly compensated. In this work, we propose an online, adaptive parameter tuning approach for simulation optimization that (1) bridges the real-to-sim gap between a physics simulation and observations obtained 3D perceptions through estimating a residual mapping and (2) optimizes its stiffness parameters online. Our method ensures a small residual gap between the simulation and observation and improves the simulation's predictive capabilities. The effectiveness of the proposed mechanism is evaluated in the manipulation of both a thin-shell and volumetric tissue, representative of most tissue scenarios. This work contributes to the advancement of simulation-based deformable tissue manipulation and holds potential for improving surgical autonomy.