Kinematic analysis of motor performance in robot-assisted surgery: a preliminary study

The inherent dynamics of the master manipulator of a teleoperated robot-assisted surgery (RAS) system can affect the movements of a human operator, in comparison with free-space movements. To measure the effects of these dynamics on operators with differing levels of surgical expertise, a da Vinci Si system was instrumented with a custom surgeon grip fixture and magnetic pose trackers. We compared users' performance of canonical motor control movements during teleoperation with the manipulator and freehand cursor control, and found significant differences in several aspects of motion, including target acquisition error, movement speed, and acceleration. In addition, there was preliminary evidence for differences between experts and novices. These findings could impact robot design, control, and training methods for RAS.