Effects of Wrist-Worn Haptic Feedback on Force Accuracy and Task Speed During a Teleoperated Robotic Surgery Task

Abstract

Previous work has shown that adding haptic feedback to the hands can improve awareness of tool-tissue interactions and enhance performance of teleoperated tasks in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery. However, hand-based haptic feedback occludes direct interaction with the manipulanda of surgeon consoles. We propose relocating haptic feedback to the wrist using a wearable haptic device. It is unknown if such feedback will be effective, given that it is not co-located with the finger movements used for manipulation. To test if relocated haptic feedback improves force application during teleoperated tasks using the da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK) surgical robot, participants learned to palpate a phantom tissue to desired forces. A soft pneumatic wrist-worn haptic device with an anchoring system renders tool-tissue interaction forces to the wrist of the user. Participants demonstrated statistically significant lower force error and performed the palpation task with longer movement times when provided wrist-worn haptic feedback.