Adaptive Human-Robotic Interaction for Robotic-assisted Surgical Settings

Introduction: Increased complexity in robotic-assisted surgical system interfaces introduces problems with human–robot collaboration that result in excessive mental workload (MWL), adversely impacting a surgeon’s task performance and increasing error probability. Real-time monitoring of the operator’s MWL will aid in identifying when and how interventions can be best provided to moderate MWL. In this study, an MWL-based adaptive automation system is constructed and evaluated for its effectiveness during robotic-assisted surgery. Materials and Methods: This study recruited 10 participants first to perform surgical tasks under different cognitive workload levels. Physiological signals were obtained and employed to build a real-time system for cognitive workload monitoring. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system, 15 participants were recruited to perform the surgical task with and without the proposed system. The participants’ task performance and perceived workload were collected and compared. Results: The proposed neural network model achieved an accuracy of 77.9% in cognitive workload classification. In addition, better task performance and lower perceived workload were observed when participants completed the experimental task under the task condition supplemented with adaptive aiding using the proposed system. Conclusions: The proposed MWL monitoring system successfully diminished the perceived workload of participants and increased their task performance under high-stress conditions via interventions by a semi-autonomous suction tool. The preliminary results from the comparative study show the potential impact of automated adaptive aiding systems in enhancing surgical task performance via cognitive workload-triggered interventions in robotic-assisted surgery.