A Trimodal Framework for Robot-Assisted Vascular Shunt Insertion When a Supervising Surgeon is Local, Remote, or Unavailable

Abstract

Vascular shunt insertion is a common surgical procedure requiring a surgeon-and-surgical-assistant team performed to temporarily restore blood flow to damaged tissues. Robotic assistance for this procedure is challenging due to precision and control uncertainty. The role of the robot in this task depends on the availability of a human surgeon. We propose a trimodal framework for vascular shunt insertion assisted by a dVRK robotic surgical assistant. We consider three scenarios: (1) a surgeon is available locally; (2) a remote surgeon is available via teleoperation; (3) no surgeon is available. In each scenario, the robot operates in a different mode either by teleoperation or automation. For mode (1), a learned visual servoing policy is proposed for vessel grasping. Physical experiments demonstrate a success rate of 70%-100% for mode (1), 100% for mode (2), and 80%-95% for mode (3).