Effects of Wrist-Worn Haptic Feedback on Force Accuracy and Task Speed During a Teleoperated Robotic Surgery Task
Brian Binh Vuong, Josie Davidson, Sangheui Cheon, Kyu-Jin Cho, Allison M. Okamura
AI summary
Problem
Hand-based haptic feedback devices often occlude direct interaction with surgical console manipulanda, limiting clinical adoption. It remains unknown whether relocating haptic feedback to the wrist can effectively convey tool-tissue interaction forces without being co-located with the fingers.
Approach
The authors developed a soft pneumatic wrist-worn device with an active anchoring bracelet to render tool-tissue forces to the forearm, then evaluated its impact on a teleoperated palpation task using the da Vinci Research Kit.
Key results
- Statistically significant reduction in palpation force error
- Increased movement times during task execution
- Development of an active anchoring bracelet for consistent feedback
- Effective linear mapping of teleoperated forces to forearm haptics
Why it matters
This approach offers a non-occluding haptic alternative that could improve surgical precision and safety in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery.
Abstract
Previous work has shown that adding haptic feedback to the hands can improve awareness of tool-tissue interactions and enhance performance of teleoperated tasks in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery. However, hand-based haptic feedback occludes direct interaction with the manipulanda of surgeon con- soles. We propose relocating haptic feedback to the wrist using a wearable haptic device. It is unknown if such feedback will be effective, given that it is not co-located with the finger movements usedformanipulation.Totestifrelocatedhapticfeedbackimproves force application during teleoperated tasks using the da Vinci Re- search Kit (dVRK) surgical robot, participants learned to palpate a phantom tissue to desired forces. A soft pneumatic wrist-worn haptic device with an anchoring system renders tool-tissue inter- action forces to the wrist of the user. Participants demonstrated statistically significant lower force error and performed the palpa- tion task with longer movement times when provided wrist-worn haptic feedback.