Koehn Jacqueline K, Kuchenbecker Katherine J
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, 229 Towne Building, 220 S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, 19104-6315, USA.
Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
Surg Endosc. 2015 Oct;29(10):2970-83. doi: 10.1007/s00464-014-4030-8. Epub 2014 Dec 25.
Clinical robotic surgery systems do not currently provide haptic feedback because surgical instrument interactions are difficult to measure and display. Our laboratory recently developed a technology that allows surgeons to feel and/or hear the high-frequency vibrations of robotic instruments as they interact with patient tissue and other tools. Until now, this type of feedback had not been carefully evaluated by users.
We conducted two human-subject studies to discover whether surgeons and non-surgeons value the addition of vibration feedback from surgical instruments during robotic surgery. In the first experiment, 10 surgeons and 10 non-surgeons (n = 20) used an augmented Intuitive da Vinci Standard robot to repeatedly perform up to four dry-lab tasks both with and without haptic and audio feedback. In the second experiment, 68 surgeons and 26 non-surgeons (n = 94) tested the same robot at a surgical conference: each participant spent approximately 5 min performing one or two tasks.
Almost all subjects in both experiments (95 and 98 %, respectively) preferred receiving feedback of tool vibrations, and all subjects in the second experiment thought it would be useful for surgeons to have the option of such feedback. About half of the subjects (50, 60 %) preferred haptic and audio feedback together, and almost all the rest (45, 35 %) preferred haptic feedback alone. Subjects stated that the feedback made them more aware of tool contacts and did not interfere with use of the robot. There were no significant differences between the responses of different subject populations for any questions in either experiment.
This study illustrates that both surgeons and non-surgeons prefer instrument vibration feedback during robotic surgery. Some participants found audio feedback useful but most preferred haptic feedback overall. This strong preference for tool vibration feedback indicates that this technology provides valuable tactile information to the surgeon.
临床机器人手术系统目前尚不提供触觉反馈，因为手术器械的相互作用难以测量和显示。我们实验室最近开发了一种技术，可使外科医生在手术器械与患者组织及其他工具相互作用时感受和/或听到高频振动。到目前为止，这种类型的反馈尚未得到用户的仔细评估。
我们进行了两项人体研究，以探究外科医生和非外科医生是否重视在机器人手术期间增加手术器械的振动反馈。在第一个实验中，10名外科医生和10名非外科医生（n = 20）使用增强型直观达芬奇标准机器人，在有和没有触觉及音频反馈的情况下反复执行多达四项模拟实验任务。在第二个实验中，68名外科医生和26名非外科医生（n = 94）在一次手术会议上测试了同一台机器人：每位参与者花费约5分钟执行一两项任务。
两个实验中的几乎所有受试者（分别为95%和98%）都更喜欢接收工具振动反馈，并且第二个实验中的所有受试者都认为外科医生可以选择这种反馈会很有用。约一半的受试者（50%、60%）更喜欢同时有触觉和音频反馈，几乎所有其余受试者（45%、35%）更喜欢仅触觉反馈。受试者表示，这种反馈使他们更清楚工具的接触情况，并且不会干扰机器人的使用。在任何一个实验中，不同受试者群体对任何问题的回答之间均无显著差异。
本研究表明，外科医生和非外科医生在机器人手术期间都更喜欢器械振动反馈。一些参与者发现音频反馈有用，但总体上大多数人更喜欢触觉反馈。对工具振动反馈的这种强烈偏好表明，该技术为外科医生提供了有价值的触觉信息。
