[jpeloquin]

Not sure how to interpret the question. Using a robot vs. a person doesn't change anything about the physics of how tissue responds to perturbation. You can of course simplify the simulator and correspondingly limit its use to specific learning objectives, probably novice-level. To return to the thread's starting point—we understand flight well enough to make general-purpose flight simulators, we don't understand tissue well enough to make general-purpose surgical simulators. You can still make simple interactive training tools to help someone rehearse the motions of a procedure, but I wouldn't call such a tool a simulator.