Visual Attention Based Cognitive Human-Robot Collaboration for Pedicle Screw Placement in Robot-Assisted Orthopedic Surgery

TL;DR

This paper introduces a cognitive human-robot collaboration framework with visual attention and AR-haptic interfaces for precise and safe pedicle screw placement in robot-assisted orthopedic surgery, emphasizing surgeon-robot teamwork.

Contribution

It presents a novel collaboration framework integrating visual attention, AR-haptic interface, and shared control, enhancing safety and ergonomics in orthopedic robot-assisted procedures.

Findings

Outperforms full robot control in safety and ergonomics

Effective surgeon model using visual attention

Improved collaboration in orthopedic surgery

Abstract

Current orthopedic robotic systems largely focus on navigation, aiding surgeons in positioning a guiding tube but still requiring manual drilling and screw placement. The automation of this task not only demands high precision and safety due to the intricate physical interactions between the surgical tool and bone but also poses significant risks when executed without adequate human oversight. As it involves continuous physical interaction, the robot should collaborate with the surgeon, understand the human intent, and always include the surgeon in the loop. To achieve this, this paper proposes a new cognitive human-robot collaboration framework, including the intuitive AR-haptic human-robot interface, the visual-attention-based surgeon model, and the shared interaction control scheme for the robot. User studies on a robotic platform for orthopedic surgery are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the proposed human-robot collaboration framework outperforms full robot and full human control in terms of safety and ergonomics.