IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2021 Oct;68(10):3184-3193. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2021.3076094. Epub 2021 Sep 20.
Adding haptic feedback has been reported to improve the outcome of minimally invasive robotic surgery. In this study, we seek to determine whether an algorithm based on simulating responses of a cutaneous afferent population can be implemented to improve the performance of presenting haptic feedback for robot-assisted surgery. We propose a bio-inspired controlling model to present vibration and force feedback to help surgeons localize underlying structures in phantom tissue. A single pair of actuators was controlled by outputs of a model of a population of cutaneous afferents based on the pressure signal from a single sensor embedded in surgical forceps. We recruited 25 subjects including 10 expert surgeons to evaluate the performance of the bio-inspired controlling model in an artificial palpation task using the da Vinci surgical robot. Among the control methods tested, the bio-inspired system was unique in allowing both novices and experts to easily identify the locations of all classes of tumors and did so with reduced contact force and tumor contact time. This work demonstrates the utility of our bio-inspired multi-modal feedback system, which resulted in superior performance for both novice and professional users, in comparison to a traditional linear and the existing piecewise discrete algorithms of haptic feedback.
添加触觉反馈已被报道可以改善微创机器人手术的效果。在这项研究中，我们旨在确定是否可以实施一种基于模拟皮肤传入神经元群体反应的算法来改善机器人辅助手术中呈现触觉反馈的性能。我们提出了一种基于仿生控制模型来呈现振动和力反馈，以帮助外科医生在虚拟组织中定位潜在结构。单个对的执行器由基于嵌入手术器械中的单个传感器的压力信号的皮肤传入神经元群体模型的输出控制。我们招募了 25 名受试者，包括 10 名专家外科医生，使用达芬奇手术机器人评估基于仿生控制模型的人工触诊任务的性能。在测试的控制方法中，仿生系统的独特之处在于允许新手和专家都能够轻松识别所有类型肿瘤的位置，并且接触力和肿瘤接触时间都减少了。这项工作证明了我们的基于仿生的多模态反馈系统的实用性，与传统的线性和现有的触觉反馈分段离散算法相比，它为新手和专业用户都带来了卓越的性能。
