Patient positioning by visualising surgical robot rotational workspace in augmented reality

Abstract

Surgical robots have been the focal point of minimally invasive approaches in the last decades, gradually changing laparoscopic procedures. Robotic platforms offer many advantages that assist the surgeon, including a magnified view of the operative field, motion stability, and 3D visualisation.Understanding the characteristics and limitations of the robot’s workspace is crucial for a successful intervention. Proper positioning of the patient with respect to the robot ensures optimal intraoperative reachability of the desired target regions by the robot and eliminates the need to reposition.In this work, we present a workspace visualisation system using augmented reality. We aim to assist the user wearing a head-mounted display with placing the patient in an optimal position in preparation for the robotic surgery. We evaluated three possible modes of presenting rotational workspace information to the user and quantitatively assessed the placement accuracy. We demonstrated the effectiveness of the implemented solution to increase the robot’s effective range of motion at the surgical port location.