A Digital Twin Approach for Contextual Assistance for Surgeons During Surgical Robotics Training

Area of Science:

• Minimally invasive robotic surgery
• Surgical training
• Human-computer interaction

Background:

• Minimally invasive robotic surgery offers patient benefits but presents challenges for surgeons, including a lack of tactile feedback.
• Virtual Fixtures (VFs) can enhance surgical performance by providing contextual assistance through haptic feedback, but estimating the surgical task context is difficult.
• Surgical training environments allow for accurate task modeling, offering a unique opportunity to parameterize VFs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a Shared Control Parametrization Engine for Virtual Fixtures in robotic surgery training.
• To investigate the use of a Digital Twin to retrieve procedural context information for VF parameterization.
• To reduce the skill level and cognitive load required for novice surgeons using robotic systems.

Main Methods:

• A Shared Control Parametrization Engine was proposed, utilizing a Digital Twin to extract procedural context.
• Virtual Fixtures were parameterized based on the retrieved context to provide haptic assistance.
• A pilot study was conducted using the DLR MiroSurge system with two benchmark surgical training scenarios (pick, place, path following).

Main Results:

• The pilot study demonstrated a promising trend where novice users benefited from haptic augmentation during training.
• The approach showed potential in accelerating proficiency for novice surgeons in specific robotic surgery tasks.
• The system aims to reduce the skill threshold and cognitive burden associated with minimally invasive robotic surgery.

Conclusions:

• The developed approach effectively utilizes Digital Twins and Virtual Fixtures for enhanced robotic surgery training.
• Haptic augmentation shows potential to improve learning curves and reduce surgeon workload in minimally invasive procedures.
• Further research and validation are warranted to fully realize the benefits of this shared control strategy.