Bone Conduction Headphones for Force Feedback in Robotic Surgery

Bone conduction headphones (Fig. 1) offer the unique ability to provide auditory information to the user without obstructing external sounds. We apply this technology to robotic surgery to provide the surgeon with force feedback information with minimal distraction. The device is evaluated by pairing it with a force sensor that is attached to a suture pad. Four participants were tasked to complete 25 sutures on the suture pad while either receiving no feedback or audio, visual, or combined feedback that represents the magnitude of their applied force. Trials performed with bone conducting headphones had noticeable improvements compared to previous trials without feedback, while the most noticeable improvements were observed for cases with both visual and auditory feedback. Auditory feedback may have an important role in a robotic surgery setting and bone conduction headphones may enable this form of feedback with minimal distraction.

[1]  K. M. Deliparaschos,et al.  Evolution of autonomous and semi‐autonomous robotic surgical systems: a review of the literature , 2011, The international journal of medical robotics + computer assisted surgery : MRCAS.

[2]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[3]  Caroline G. L. Cao,et al.  Vibrotactile force feedback system for minimally invasive surgical procedures , 2006, 2006 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics.

[4]  D. Yuh,et al.  Effects of visual force feedback on robot-assisted surgical task performance. , 2008, The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery.

[5]  David I. Lee,et al.  In vivo validation of a system for haptic feedback of tool vibrations in robotic surgery , 2013, Surgical Endoscopy.

[6]  D. Yuh,et al.  Effect of sensory substitution on suture-manipulation forces for robotic surgical systems. , 2005, The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery.

[7]  Alois Knoll,et al.  Haptic Feedback in a Telepresence System for Endoscopic Heart Surgery , 2007, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

[8]  Thomas Looi,et al.  Novel force-sensing system for minimally invasive surgical instruments , 2017, 2017 39th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC).

[9]  Claudio Pacchierotti,et al.  Vibrotactile haptic feedback for intuitive control of robotic extra fingers , 2015, 2015 IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC).

[10]  Rajnikant V. Patel,et al.  Curvature, Torsion, and Force Sensing in Continuum Robots Using Helically Wrapped FBG Sensors , 2016, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

[11]  K. J. Kuchenbecker,et al.  Surgeons and non-surgeons prefer haptic feedback of instrument vibrations during robotic surgery , 2015, Surgical Endoscopy.