A virtual suturing task: proof of concept for awareness in autonomous camera motion

Robot-assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) requires the surgeon to alternatively control both the surgical instruments and the endoscopic camera, or to leave this burden to an assistant. This increases the cognitive load and interrupts the workflow of the operation. Camera motion automation has been examined in the literature to mitigate these aspects, but still lacks situation awareness, a key factor for camera navigation enhancement. This paper presents the development of a phase-specific camera motion automation, implemented in Virtual Reality (VR) during a suturing task. A user study involving 10 users was carried out using the master console of the da Vinci Research Kit. Each subject performed the suturing task undergoing both the proposed autonomous camera motion and the traditional manual camera control. Results show that the proposed system can reduce operational time, decreasing both the user's mental and physical demand. Situational awareness is shown to be fundamental in exploiting the benefits introduced by camera motion automation.