Despite the wealth of sensory data available during robot-assisted surgery, current surgical operations do not utilize this data. With this sensory data, surgical robots could potentially be outfitted with intelligence to complement a surgeon's capabilities. With both agents--robot and surgeon--equipped with unique capabilities, there exists a need to seamlessly blend the control input from both agents. This research focuses on devising a shared control platform to best utilize the strengths of robot and surgeon in robotic surgery control. One active research area for this topic is shared control of tissue grasping to provide optimal force during robotic surgery despite not having force feedback to the surgeon. The current researcher for this project is Trevor Stephens.
Relevant Publications:
| [1] | Trevor K Stephens, Nathan J Kong, Rodney L Dockter, John J O'Neill, Robert M Sweet, and Timothy M Kowalewski. Blended Shared Control Utilizing Online Identification. International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, 13(6):769--776, 6 2018. [ DOI | .pdf ] |