Effects of Flexible Surgery Robot on Endoscopic Procedure: Preliminary Bench-Top User Test

Abstract

Endoscopes are widely used for not only intraluminal diagnosis but also therapeutic procedures in the gastrointestinal area. However, conventional endoscopes present a few challenges such as nonintuitive manipulation, physical burden on the operator, and lack of dexterity. These challenges limit endoscope usage in complex surgical procedures. Moreover, endoscope operators undergo extensive and lengthy training to attain an adequate skill level. In this paper, we introduce a flexible surgery robot platform K-FLEX that facilitates teleoperation via an intuitive master interface and bimanual manipulation by means of two dexterous surgical robot arms. Its effects on endoscopic procedures, especially in terms of task performance, learning properties, and physical burden on the operator, are validated by conducting a user test. The experimental results demonstrate that the developed robotic assistant increases operation speed, especially for novices; simplifies the learning process; and reduces the workload on the operator compared to conventional endoscopes.