Tool Contact Acceleration Feedback for Telerobotic Surgery

Minimally invasive telerobotic surgical systems enable surgeons to perform complicated procedures without large incisions. Unfortunately, these systems typically do not provide the surgeon with sensory feedback aside from stereoscopic vision. We have, thus, developed VerroTouch, a sensing and actuating device that can be added to Intuitive Surgical's existing da Vinci S Surgical System to provide auditory and vibrotactile feedback of tool contact accelerations. These cues let the surgeon feel and hear contact with rough textures as well as the making and breaking of contact with objects and other tools. To evaluate the merits of this approach, we had 11 surgeons use an augmented da Vinci S to perform three in vitro manipulation tasks under four different feedback conditions: with no acceleration feedback, with audio feedback, with haptic feedback, and with both audio and haptic. Subjects expressed a significant preference for the inclusion of tool contact acceleration feedback, although they disagreed over which sensory modality was best. Other survey responses and qualitative written comments indicate that the feedback may have improved the subject's concentration and situational awareness by strengthening the connection between the surgeon and the surgical instruments. Analysis of quantitative task metrics shows that the feedback neither improves nor impedes the performance of the chosen tasks.

[1]  J. Randall Flanagan,et al.  Coding and use of tactile signals from the fingertips in object manipulation tasks , 2009, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[2]  Thierry Piechaud,et al.  LAPAROSCOPIC RADICAL PROSTATECTOMY , 1999 .

[3]  B. Guillonneau,et al.  Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. , 2002, The Journal of urology.

[4]  Rajni V. Patel,et al.  Haptic interaction in robot‐assisted endoscopic surgery: a sensorized end‐effector , 2005, The international journal of medical robotics + computer assisted surgery : MRCAS.

[5]  Blake Hannaford,et al.  The Blue DRAGON--a system for monitoring the kinematics and the dynamics of endoscopic tools in minimally invasive surgery for objective laparoscopic skill assessment. , 2002, Studies in health technology and informatics.

[6]  Warren S. Grundfest,et al.  A Multielement Tactile Feedback System for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[7]  John Kenneth Salisbury,et al.  The Intuitive/sup TM/ telesurgery system: overview and application , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[8]  J. Kenneth Salisbury,et al.  The Heart of Microsurgery , 1998 .

[9]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Teleoperation with sensor/actuator asymmetry: task performance with partial force feedback , 2004, 12th International Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems, 2004. HAPTICS '04. Proceedings..

[10]  S. Horgan,et al.  A prospective analysis of 211 robotic-assisted surgical procedures , 2003, Surgical Endoscopy And Other Interventional Techniques.

[11]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Friction Compensation for Enhancing Transparency of a Teleoperator With Compliant Transmission , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[12]  Y. Matsuoka,et al.  Robotics for surgery. , 1999, Annual review of biomedical engineering.

[13]  Joseph M. Romano,et al.  High frequency acceleration feedback significantly increases the realism of haptically rendered textured surfaces , 2010, 2010 IEEE Haptics Symposium.

[14]  H S Vitense,et al.  Multimodal feedback: an assessment of performance and mental workload , 2003, Ergonomics.

[15]  Christopher R. Wagner,et al.  The role of force feedback in surgery: analysis of blunt dissection , 2002, Proceedings 10th Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems. HAPTICS 2002.

[16]  Jean Bruyns,et al.  Robotic fundoplication: from theoretic advantages to real problems. , 2003, Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

[17]  Robert D. Howe,et al.  Tactile Display of Vibratory Information in Teleoperation and Virtual Environments , 1995, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[18]  Tobias Ortmaier,et al.  Teleoperation Concepts in Minimal Invasive Surgery , 2001 .

[19]  G. Picod,et al.  What can the operator actually feel when performing a laparoscopy? , 2003, Surgical Endoscopy And Other Interventional Techniques.

[20]  Cornelis A. Grimbergen,et al.  Robotics in minimally invasive surgery , 2004, 2004 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37583).

[21]  Katherine J. Kuchenbecker,et al.  Haptic display of realistic tool contact via dynamically compensated control of a dedicated actuator , 2009, 2009 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[22]  T. Ahlering,et al.  Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy: review and assessment of an emerging technique , 2004, Surgical Endoscopy.

[23]  Neal A. Tanner,et al.  Improving Perception in Time-delayed Telerobotics , 2005, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[24]  Ashok K. Hemal,et al.  Emerging role of robotics in urology , 2005, Journal of minimal access surgery.

[25]  Michael J. Singer,et al.  Measuring Presence in Virtual Environments: A Presence Questionnaire , 1998, Presence.

[26]  John Kenneth Salisbury,et al.  The Black Falcon: a teleoperated surgical instrument for minimally invasive surgery , 1998, Proceedings. 1998 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Innovations in Theory, Practice and Applications (Cat. No.98CH36190).

[27]  D. Yuh,et al.  Application of haptic feedback to robotic surgery. , 2004, Journal of laparoendoscopic & advanced surgical techniques. Part A.

[28]  Tsuneo Yoshikawa,et al.  Bilateral control of master-slave manipulators for ideal kinesthetic coupling-formulation and experiment , 1994, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[29]  Alana Sherman,et al.  Design of bilateral teleoperation controllers for haptic exploration and telemanipulation of soft environments , 2002, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[30]  Joseph M. Romano,et al.  Dimensional Reduction of High-Frequency Accelerations for Haptic Rendering , 2010, EuroHaptics.

[31]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Analysis of Suture Manipulation Forces for Teleoperation with Force Feedback , 2002, MICCAI.

[32]  James A. Young,et al.  Robotic Surgical Training in an Academic Institution , 2001, Annals of surgery.

[33]  Katherine J. Kuchenbecker,et al.  VerroTouch: High-Frequency Acceleration Feedback for Telerobotic Surgery , 2010, EuroHaptics.

[34]  Alana Sherman,et al.  Bilateral controller design for telemanipulation in soft environments , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).

[35]  G. Sung,et al.  Robotic laparoscopic surgery: a comparison of the DA Vinci and Zeus systems. , 2001, Urology.

[36]  G. Fried,et al.  Development of a model for training and evaluation of laparoscopic skills. , 1998, American journal of surgery.

[37]  W. Sjoerdsma,et al.  Sensitivity of laparoscopic dissectors , 1999, Surgical Endoscopy.

[38]  J. Bell,et al.  The structure and function of pacinian corpuscles: A review , 1994, Progress in Neurobiology.

[39]  A. Lanfranco,et al.  Robotic Surgery: A Current Perspective , 2004, Annals of surgery.

[40]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Force-Feedback Surgical Teleoperator: Controller Design and Palpation Experiments , 2008, 2008 Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems.

[41]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Enhancing Transparency of a Position-Exchange Teleoperator , 2007, Second Joint EuroHaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (WHC'07).

[42]  Jan Peirs,et al.  A micro optical force sensor for force feedback during minimally invasive robotic surgery , 2003 .

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