The benefits of haptic feedback in robot assisted surgery and their moderators: a metaanalysis

Robot assisted surgery (RAS) provides medical practitioners with valuable tools, decreasing strain during surgery and leading to better patient outcomes. While the loss of haptic sensation is a commonly cited disadvantage of RAS, new systems aim to address this problem by providing artificial haptic feedback. N = 56 papers that compared robotic surgery systems with and without haptic feedback were analyzed to quantify the performance benefits of restoring the haptic modality. Additionally, this study identifies factors moderating the effect of restoring haptic sensation. Overall results showed haptic feedback was effective in reducing average forces (Hedges' g = 0.83) and peak forces (Hedges' g = 0.69) applied during surgery, as well as reducing the completion time (Hedges' g = 0.83). Haptic feedback has also been found to lead to higher accuracy (Hedges' g = 1.50) and success rates (Hedges' g = 0.80) during surgical tasks. Effect sizes on several measures varied between tasks, the type of provided feedback, and the subjects' levels of surgical expertise, with higher levels of expertise generally associated with smaller effect sizes. No significant differences were found between virtual fixtures and rendering contact forces. Implications for future research are discussed

Haptic assistance improves tele-manipulation with two asymmetric slaves

\u3cp\u3eTele-manipulation of heavy loads typically requires the simultaneous use of two asymmetric slaves: a crane for vertical weight support and a robot for accurate lateral positioning. The industrial standard prescribes a pair of operators for such tasks (one operator to control each slave), although in principle one operator might control both slaves with a single, hybrid interface. Accurate and safe co-operative handling of the expensive and fragile heavy components is difficult, presumably due to problems in the coordination of the subtasks and the lack of mutual awareness between the two operators. This study proposes a novel haptic assistance system to improve subtask coordination and task performance. Its novelty consists of haptically linking operators/interfaces through the joint task environment. The system's efficacy is evaluated with 15 pairs of co-operators and 15 individual uni-manual operators who maneuvered a heavy load through a bounded path in Virtual Reality. Haptic assistance improves task completion time for both groups. It also reduces control activity and self-reported workload without affecting a number of critical errors made by the operators. Moreover, without haptic assistance, uni-manual operators perform worse than co-operators, but this difference between the interfaces was not found with haptic assistance.\u3c/p\u3

Haptic assistance improves tele-manipulation with two asymmetric slaves

Tele-manipulation of heavy loads typically requires the simultaneous use of two asymmetric slaves: a crane for vertical weight support and a robot for accurate lateral positioning. The industrial standard prescribes a pair of operators for such tasks (one operator to control each slave), although in principle one operator might control both slaves with a single, hybrid interface. Accurate and safe co-operative handling of the expensive and fragile heavy components is difficult, presumably due to problems in the coordination of the subtasks and the lack of mutual awareness between the two operators. This study proposes a novel haptic assistance system to improve subtask coordination and task performance. Its novelty consists of haptically linking operators/interfaces through the joint task environment. The system's efficacy is evaluated with 15 pairs of co-operators and 15 individual uni-manual operators who maneuvered a heavy load through a bounded path in Virtual Reality. Haptic assistance improves task completion time for both groups. It also reduces control activity and self-reported workload without affecting a number of critical errors made by the operators. Moreover, without haptic assistance, uni-manual operators perform worse than co-operators, but this difference between the interfaces was not found with haptic assistance

Haptic Assistance Improves Tele-manipulation With Two Asymmetric Slaves

Tele-manipulation of heavy loads typically requires the simultaneous use of two asymmetric slaves: a crane for vertical weight support; and a robot for accurate lateral positioning. The industrial standard prescribes a pair of operators for such tasks (one operator to control each slave), although in principle one operator might control both slaves with a single, hybrid interface. Accurate and safe co-operative handling of the expensive and fragile heavy components is difficult, presumably due to problems in the coordination of the subtasks and the lack of mutual awareness between the two operators. This study proposes a novel haptic assistance system to improve subtask coordination and task performance. Its novelty consists of haptically linking operators/interfaces through the joint task environment. The system\u27s efficacy is evaluated with fifteen pairs of co-operators and fifteen individual uni-manual operators who manoeuvred a heavy load through a bounded path in Virtual Reality. Haptic assistance improves task completion time for both groups. It also reduces control activity and self-reported workload without affecting a number of critical errors made by the operators. Moreover, without haptic assistance, uni-manual operators perform worse than co-operators, but this difference between the interfaces disappears with haptic assistance

Haptic assistance improves tele-manipulation with two asymmetric slaves

Tele-manipulation of heavy loads typically requires the simultaneous use of two asymmetric slaves: a crane for vertical weight support; and a robot for accurate lateral positioning. The industrial standard prescribes a pair of operators for such tasks (one operator to control each slave), although in principle one operator might control both slaves with a single, hybrid interface. Accurate and safe co-operative handling of the expensive and fragile heavy components is difficult, presumably due to problems in the coordination of the subtasks and the lack of mutual awareness between the two operators. This study proposes a novel haptic assistance system to improve subtask coordination and task performance. Its novelty consists of haptically linking operators/interfaces through the joint task environment. The system's efficacy is evaluated with fifteen pairs of co-operators and fifteen individual uni-manual operators who manoeuvred a heavy load through a bounded path in Virtual Reality. Haptic assistance improves task completion time for both groups. It also reduces control activity and self-reported workload without affecting a number of critical errors made by the operators. Moreover, without haptic assistance, uni-manual operators perform worse than co-operators, but this difference between the interfaces disappears with haptic assistance.Accepted Author manuscriptHuman-Robot InteractionBiomechatronics & Human-Machine Contro