MINARO DRS: usability study of a robotic-assisted laminectomy

Although the literature shows that robotic assistance can support the surgeon, robotic systems are not widely spread in clinics. They often incorporate large robotic arms adopted from the manufacturing industry, imposing safety hazards when in contact with the patient or surgical staff. We approached this limitation with a modular dual robot consisting of an ultra-lightweight carrier robot for rough prepositioning and small, highly dynamic, application-specific, interchangeable tooling robots.

A formative usability study with N = 10 neurosurgeons was conducted using a prototype of a novel tooling robot for laminectomy to evaluate the system’s usability. The participants were asked to perform three experiments using the robotic system: (1) prepositioning with the carrier robot and milling into (2) a block phantom as well as (3) a spine model.

All neurosurgeons could perform a simulated laminectomy on a spine phantom using the robotic system. On average, they rated the usability of this first prototype already between good and excellent (SUS-Score above 75%). Eight out of the ten participants preferred robotic-assisted milling over manual milling. For prepositioning, the developed haptic guidance showed significantly higher effectiveness and efficiency than visual navigation.

The proposed dual robot system showed the potential to increase safety in the operating room because of the synergistic hands-on control and the ultra-lightweight design of the carrier robot. The modular design allows for easy adaptation to various surgical procedures. However, improvements are needed in the ergonomics of the tooling robot and the complexity of the virtual fixtures. The cooperative dual robot system can subsequently be tested in a cadaver laboratory and in vivo on animals.