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Artificial palpation in robotic surgery using haptic feedback

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Abstract

Background

The loss of tactile feedback in minimally invasive robotic surgery remains a major challenge to the expanding field. With visual cue compensation alone, tissue characterization via palpation proves to be immensely difficult. This work evaluates a bimodal vibrotactile system as a means of conveying applied forces to simulate haptic feedback in two sets of studies simulating an artificial palpation task using the da Vinci surgical robot.

Methods

Subjects in the first study were tasked with localizing an embedded vessel in a soft tissue phantom using a single-sensor unit. In the second study, subjects localized tumor-like structures using a three-sensor array. In both sets of studies, subjects completed the task under three trial conditions: no feedback, normal force tactile feedback, and hybrid vibrotactile feedback. Recordings of correct localization, incorrect localization, and time-to-completion were used to evaluate performance outcomes.

Results

With the addition of vibrotactile and pneumatic feedback, significant improvements in the percentage of correct localization attempts were detected (p = 0.0001 and p = 0.0459, respectively) during the first experiment with phantom vessels. Similarly, significant improvements in correct localization were found with the addition of vibrotactile (p = 2.57E−5) and pneumatic significance (p = 8.54E−5) were observed in the second experiment involving tumor phantoms.

Conclusions

This work demonstrates not only the superior benefits of a multi-modal feedback over traditional single-modality feedback, but also the effectiveness of vibration in providing haptic feedback to artificial palpation systems.

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Funding

The funding was provided by National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (Grant No. R01EB019473).

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Author notes

  1. Ahmad Abiri and Yen-Yi Juo have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT), UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Ahmad Abiri, Anna Tao, Syed J. Askari, Jake Pensa, James W. Bisley, Erik P. Dutson & Warren S. Grundfest

  2. Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Ahmad Abiri & Warren S. Grundfest

  3. Department of Surgery, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Yen-Yi Juo & Erik P. Dutson

  4. Brain Research Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    James W. Bisley

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  1. Ahmad Abiri
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Correspondence to Ahmad Abiri.

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Disclosures

Dr. Erik Dutson is on Scientific Advisory board of Titan Medical. Drs. Abiri, Juo, Bisley, Dutson, Grundfest, Anna Tao, Syed Askari, and Jake Pensa have no conflicts of interest or financial ties to disclose.

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Abiri, A., Juo, YY., Tao, A. et al. Artificial palpation in robotic surgery using haptic feedback. Surg Endosc 33, 1252–1259 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-018-6405-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-018-6405-8

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