Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2026
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
Background:
Many surgical robotic interfaces allow users to interact with robots over a wide potential range of motion, yet variation in operator performance across a range of motion remains unexamined. This research identifies and explores a new construct, the surgeon's 'comfortable working envelope' within the available range of motion, as a factor in surgical robotic interface design.
Methods:
Task accuracy and completion time for a simple aimed movement task were analysed as a function of participant hand positions obtained via infrared motion tracking.
Results:
Hand positions outside the 'comfortable working envelope' led to a 20% increase in error magnitude. With respect to the overall input device range of motion, there were large variations in performance, up to 31% difference in error magnitude and 11% difference in movement time.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that advanced surgical robots should have intelligent re-indexing strategies. Alternatively, the robot's control gain should adaptively change with respect to hand position to normalize a surgeon's performance throughout his/her working volume.
