Teach and Playback Training Device for Minimally Invasive Surgery

Abstract

Recent technological progress offers the opportunity to significantly transform conventional open surgical procedures in ways that allow minimally invasive surgery (MIS) to be accomplished by specific operative instruments' entry into the body through key-sized holes rather than large incisions. Although MIS offers an opportunity for less trauma and quicker recovery, thereby reducing length of hospital stay and attendant costs, the complex nature of this procedure makes it difficult to master, not least because of the limited work area and constricted degree of freedom. Accordingly, this research seeks to design a Teach and Playback device that can aid surgical training by key-framing and then reproducing surgical motions. The result is an inexpensive and portable Teach and Playback laparoscopic training device that can record a trainer's surgical motions and then play them back for trainees. Indeed, such a device could provide a training platform for surgical residents generally and would also be susceptible of many other applications for other robot-assisted tasks that might require complex motion training and control.

A Robotic Recording and Playback Platform for Training Surgeons and Learning Autonomous Behaviors Using the da Vinci Surgical System

“…Our group previously demonstrated a basic recording and playback capability for the ZEUS Surgical System (a precursor to the da Vinci, also made by Intuitive Surgical Inc.) [12]. A simple system based on an Arduino microcontroller and a non-surgical robotic arm (built using six servomotors) also showed the concept of recording and playback [13]. Our system extends this work to a clinically relevant platform with multiple input/output devices, utilizes advanced 3D simulation software, Robotics 2019, 8, 9 4 of 17 is more generalizable to other robots/systems, and evaluates both the recording and playback of the system.…”

Robotics in laparoscopic surgery - A review

“…Robotic training systems can actively teach trainees the skilled motion of master surgeons and evaluate the trainee's performance by comparing his/her motion with that of the master surgeon [159]. The expert surgeon's manipulation of the surgical instrument is either recorded and played back to the surgical trainee, or using a master-slave system, the expert surgeon remotely instructs surgical trainees by manipulating the master robot that is imitated by the slave robot holding the trainee's laparoscopic instrument [159][160][161][162][163].…”

“…[17,[148][149][150][151] Other systems record the manipulator's joints' angles during the record stage. Garudeswaran et al [161] proposed a 6 DOF robotic arm, with its servomotors acting as potentiometers during the recording stage when they are not energized. The expert surgeon manipulates the surgical instrument, moving the robotic arm.…”

“…Handheld devices also offer the surgeon enhanced dexterity with 5 and 7 DOFs [20,21]. Published works of robotic training systems proposed a variety of 5 to 7 DOFs robotic trainers [159][160][161][162]. Figure 3 classifies laparoscopic robots according to their DOFs.…”

“…The record/play training mode allows the surgeon to directly move the manipulator while manipulating the laparoscopic instrument. The instrument's trajectory/video feedback/ manipulator's joints angles are recorded and stored then the task controller sends the required control effort to the actuators' controllers in the playback stage [160,161]. Figure 6.…”