Human–Robot Interfaces of the NeuRoboScope: A Minimally Invasive Endoscopic Pituitary Tumor Surgery Robotic Assistance System

Abstract

Endoscopic endonasal surgery is a commonly practiced minimally invasive neurosurgical operation for the treatment of a wide range of skull base pathologies including pituitary tumors. A common shortcoming of this surgery is the necessity of a third hand when the endoscope has to be handled to allow active use of both hands of the main surgeon. The robot surgery assistant NeuRoboScope system has been developed to take over the endoscope from the main surgeon's hand while providing the surgeon with the necessary means of controlling the location and direction of the endoscope. One of the main novelties of the NeuRoboScope system is its human–robot interface designs which regulate and facilitate the interaction between the surgeon and the robot assistant. The human–robot interaction design of the NeuRoboScope system is investigated in two domains: direct physical interaction (DPI) and master–slave teleoperation (MST). The user study indicating the learning curve and ease of use of the MST is given and this paper is concluded via providing the reader with an outlook of possible new human–robot interfaces for the robot assisted surgery systems.

Gravity compensation of a 2R1T mechanism with remote center of motion for minimally invasive transnasal surgery applications

“…The workspace of the manipulator was defined by ref. [12] from the data of a computed tomography scan. With the results modified after considering the safety conditions and the results changing from patient to patient, the workspace of the manipulator is selected as = 40° for the yaw motion, = 30° for the pitch motion, and d = 100 mm for the heave motion of the endoscope.…”

“…In the surgical system, called NeuRoboScope, the endoscope holder is a parallel manipulator assembled on a passive serial arm (Fig. 1(a)) which can be manually positioned by the surgeon during the surgery [11]. The end-effector of the parallel manipulator which holds the endoscope is placed through the nostril of the patient where there is a natural path to the pituitary gland.…”

“…A prototype of the NeuRoboScope system is built and presented by ref. [11]. The requirements of the balancing system to be implemented for this surgical system are as follows: (1) the passive robotic arm end-effector has 13 kg load limit, so the balanced system should have less than 13 kg mass and it is safer to have limited increase in the total inertia of the system, and (2) the additional parts for static balancing should not cause any link collisions.…”

Enabling personalization of a robotic surgery procedure via a surgery training simulator

“…This absolute orientation information is processed [4] at the master side to generate speed demands (ω pitch , ω roll , v dolly ) to drive the slave system. Therefore, the motion demand generated is not an absolute position demand but relative motion demand as a result of this procedure.…”

“…We developed a new surgical robotic system called the NeuRoboSope system, which is an assistiverobot system designed specifically for endoscopic endonasal skull base surgery [4]. This system is designed to handle and move the endoscope while main surgeon carries out the surgery.…”