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Updated: Jul 11, 2026
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A Teleoperated Robotic System-Assisted Percutaneous Transiliac-Transsacral Screw Fixation Technique
Published on: January 6, 2023
Hand position effects on precision and speed in telerobotic surgery.
L Golenberg1, A Cao, R D Ellis
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA. golenber@wayne.edu
Summary
Surgeons perform better within their comfortable working envelope. Moving outside this zone increases errors by 20%, highlighting the need for adaptive surgical robot interfaces to maintain consistent performance.
Area of Science:
- Robotics
- Surgical Technology
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Surgical robotic interfaces offer wide motion ranges, but operator performance variations are unexamined.
- Introduces the 'comfortable working envelope' (CWE) as a key factor in surgical robotic interface design.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of the surgeon's comfortable working envelope on robotic surgery performance.
- To identify design implications for surgical robotic interfaces based on operator spatial constraints.
Main Methods:
- Analyzed task accuracy and completion time for a simple aimed movement task.
- Used infrared motion tracking to record participant hand positions relative to the robot's range of motion.
Main Results:
- Hand positions outside the surgeon's CWE increased error magnitude by 20%.
- Significant performance variations (up to 31% error, 11% time difference) were observed across the device's range of motion.
Conclusions:
- Surgical robots need intelligent re-indexing strategies to adapt to surgeon movement.
- Adaptive control gain adjustments based on hand position can normalize surgeon performance within the working volume.
