A Shared Control Approach to Robot-Assisted Cataract Surgery Training for Novice Surgeons

This paper proposes a novel virtual-fixtures-based shared control concept for eye surgery systems focusing on cataract procedures, one of the most common ophthalmic surgeries. Current research on haptic force feedback aims to enhance manipulation capabilities by integrating teleoperated medical robots. Our proposed concept utilizes teleoperated medical robots to improve the training of young surgeons by providing haptic feedback during cataract operations based on geometrical virtual fixtures. The core novelty of our concept is the active guidance to the incision point generated directly from the geometrical representation of the virtual fixtures, and, therefore, it is computationally efficient. Furthermore, novel virtual fixtures are introduced for the posterior corneal surface of the eye during the cataract operation. The concept is tested in a human-in-the-loop pilot study, where non-medical engineering students participated. The results indicate that the proposed shared control system is helpful for the test subjects. Therefore, the inclusion of the proposed concept can be beneficial for the training of non-experienced surgeons.