Implementation and Assessment of an Augmented Training Curriculum for Surgical Robotics

The integration of high-level assistance algorithms in surgical robotics training curricula may be beneficial in establishing a more comprehensive and robust skillset for aspiring surgeons, improving their clinical performance as a consequence. This work presents the development and validation of a haptic-enhanced Virtual Reality simulator for surgical robotics training, featuring 8 surgical tasks that the trainee can interact with thanks to the embedded physics engine. This virtual simulated environment is augmented by the introduction of high-level haptic interfaces for robotic assistance that aim at re-directing the motion of the trainee's hands and wrists toward targets or away from obstacles, and providing a quantitative performance score after the execution of each training exercise.An experimental study shows that the introduction of enhanced robotic assistance into a surgical robotics training curriculum improves performance during the training process and, crucially, promotes the transfer of the acquired skills to an unassisted surgical scenario, like the clinical one.