A Multiagent Planning Approach to Model a Tele-Surgery Domain

Abstract

Technological advancements have led to the development of few co mmercially availab le telesurgery systems till date. However such systems are very expensive. In tele-surgery, the task of a surgeon (the activities related to a surgery) is partially executed by a robot. Typically, the robot is under the control of a surgeon; it executes the instructions of the controlling surgeon. In this paper we give formal model of a telesurgery domain (heart surgery) as a mu ltiagent planning problem. The actions related to the surgery are represented as planning operators. The model consists of two interactive agents, referred to as EXPERT and INTERN. The EXPERT controls the activities of the INTERN. The INTERN executes the actions suggested by the EXPERT. The state space of each agent is modeled as a transition system. The co mmunication of the agents is modeled using CCS. We have defined a condition to establish the success of the surgery using notions of fin ite games. We have also developed a prototype implementation incorporating the above features.