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. 2022 Jul;110(7):993-1011.
doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2022.3176828. Epub 2022 Jun 23.

Concepts and Trends n Autonomy for Robot-Assisted Surgery

Paolo Fiorini  1 , Ken Y Goldberg  2 , Yunhui Liu  3 , Russell H Taylor  4
Affiliations

Concepts and Trends n Autonomy for Robot-Assisted Surgery

Paolo Fiorini et al. Proc IEEE Inst Electr Electron Eng. 2022 Jul.

Abstract

Surgical robots have been widely adopted with over 4000 robots being used in practice daily. However, these are telerobots that are fully controlled by skilled human surgeons. Introducing "surgeon-assist"-some forms of autonomy-has the potential to reduce tedium and increase consistency, analogous to driver-assist functions for lanekeeping, cruise control, and parking. This article examines the scientific and technical backgrounds of robotic autonomy in surgery and some ethical, social, and legal implications. We describe several autonomous surgical tasks that have been automated in laboratory settings, and research concepts and trends.

Keywords: Autonomy; knowledge representation; machine learning (ML); machine perception; surgical actions; surgical robotics.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Relation between cognitive functions and levels of autonomy.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Products and applications involving autonomy.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Technical challenges of autonomy.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. I-SUR cryoablation demonstrator.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5. Experimental setup for tissue lifting at UVR.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6. Image-guided dual-arm needle insertion with active tissue deformation.
(a) and (b) The initial/final state of needle insertion into a phantom tissue. (c) and (d) The initial/final state of needle insertion into a porcine tissue.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7. Pipeline illustration of dual-arm autonomous multithrow suturing on soft tissues.
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Automated peg-transfer task setup. The UCB group used the dVRK robot from intuitive surgical with two arms. The blocks, pegs, and peg board were monochrome red to simulate a surgical setting. The dimensions of the pegs and the blocks are shown in the lower left, along with a top-down visualization of the peg board to the lower right. The robot takes actions based on images taken from a camera, installed 0.5 m from the task space, and 50° inclined from vertical. The six joints {q1, q6} are illustrated for one of the arms.
Fig. 9
Fig. 9. ARS demonstrator.
Fig. 10
Fig. 10. Comparison of the results of instruments part and type segmentation.
Fig. 11
Fig. 11. SARAS bed-side robotic assistant.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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