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Automation and Autonomy in Robotic Surgery

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Robotic Surgery

Abstract

Robotic surgery is the fastest growing sector of service robotics, because of strong users’ acceptance, both surgeons and patients, and the benefits this technology brings to a number of procedures. So far, robots are sophisticated instruments in the hand of surgeons, and they provide a great deal of automatic support during the execution of a procedure. In this chapter we will describe some of the steps necessary to achieve a new level of robotic surgery, i.e., add (semi) autonomous functions that will simplify surgical procedures, reduce cognitive and physical load, and increase patient safety. After a brief introduction to robotic surgery, we give some basic definitions to clarify the differences between automatic and autonomous devices. Then we describe, by means of an example, the technologies that must concur to give some degree of autonomy to a surgical robot. In particular we will describe the I-SUR (Intelligent Surgical Robot) project that demonstrated the feasibility of autonomous puncturing and suturing in a surgical context. After having described the I-SUR technologies, we will address two of the main challenges to autonomy, i.e., the availability of reliable research hardware and the technologies of knowledge representation. Some of the solutions to the knowledge representation problem will be described to show the wide spectrum of design choices available to researchers. In the conclusion we will summarize the technologies presented in the chapter, and we will indicate some of the technical and nontechnical challenges to robotic autonomy in a surgical context.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

    Paolo Fiorini

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  1. Paolo Fiorini
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Correspondence to Paolo Fiorini .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Advanced Thoracic Surgery, Global Robotics Institute Advent Health Celebration, Celebration, FL, USA

    Farid Gharagozloo

  2. Global Robotics Institute, Advent Health Celebration, Celebration, FL, USA

    Vipul R. Patel

  3. Department of Surgery, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Pier Cristoforo Giulianotti

  4. Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Three Crosses Regional Hospital, Las Cruces, NM, USA

    Robert Poston

  5. Department of Surgery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA

    Rainer Gruessner

  6. Department of Surgery, Wellington Regional Medical Center, Wellington, FL, USA

    Mark Meyer

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Fiorini, P. (2021). Automation and Autonomy in Robotic Surgery. In: Gharagozloo, F., Patel, V.R., Giulianotti, P.C., Poston, R., Gruessner, R., Meyer, M. (eds) Robotic Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53594-0_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53594-0_23

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-53593-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-53594-0

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