Voice control interface for surgical robot assistants

TL;DR

This paper introduces a real-time voice control system for surgical robots using advanced speech recognition, aiming to reduce surgeon workload and improve collaboration during minimally invasive procedures.

Contribution

It presents a novel integration of Whisper speech recognition with ROS for surgical robot control, demonstrating high accuracy and real-time performance in surgical tasks.

Findings

High accuracy in voice command recognition

Real-time system performance demonstrated

Feasibility shown in tissue triangulation task

Abstract

Traditional control interfaces for robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery impose a significant cognitive load on surgeons. To improve surgical efficiency, surgeon-robot collaboration capabilities, and reduce surgeon burden, we present a novel voice control interface for surgical robotic assistants. Our system integrates Whisper, state-of-the-art speech recognition, within the ROS framework to enable real-time interpretation and execution of voice commands for surgical manipulator control. The proposed system consists of a speech recognition module, an action mapping module, and a robot control module. Experimental results demonstrate the system's high accuracy and inference speed, and demonstrates its feasibility for surgical applications in a tissue triangulation task. Future work will focus on further improving its robustness and clinical applicability.