A team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a robotic system which can further facilitate four-arm laparoscopic operations. Whilst four-armed robotic systems are not new, the simultaneous control of four laparoscopic tools by the same operator is.
Allowing surgeons to perform multiple tasks at once using both their hands and feet represents a significant technological advance. It essentially allows a single operator to do a task that is usually performed by two and sometimes three individuals. The system provides surgeons with two additional robotic arms that can be controlled using haptic foot feedback.
The system comprises four robot units in all – hands controlling the two standard robotic arms (and used for surgical manipulation) whilst one foot controls the camera arm and the other controlling an actuated gripper. Whether these additional controls would over-burden a single operator is debated but the team from Lausanne think not.
Mohamed Bouri, one of the principal researchers, explains that the EPFL control framework on their system allows for a ‘shared control’ in which the robotic system has already predicted and planned the next step in the procedure. The robot ‘actively assists the surgeon by coordinating their movements with the surgeons through active prediction of the surgeon’s intent and adaptive visual tracing of laparoscopic instruments with the camera’. The system also provides for more accurate grasping of tissues.
The report published in The International Journal of Robotics Research and additionally reported in Interesting Engineering, discusses how the researchers trained 12 surgeons and successfully demonstrated the feasibility of the system. The shared control feature is designed to reduce the burden on the surgeon operator and enhance both safety and precision. The EPFL team is currently conducting trials in Geneva.
