Alaa Eldin Abdelaal, University of British Columbia
11/17/2020
Location: Zoom
Time: 2:55p.m.
Abstract: Robot-assisted surgery (RAS) has gained momentum over the last few decades with nearly 1,200,000 RAS procedures performed in 2019 alone using the da Vinci Surgical System, the most widely used surgical robotics platform. The current state-of-the-art surgical robotic systems use only a single endoscope to view the surgical field. In this talk, we present a novel design of an additional “pickup” camera that can be integrated into the da Vinci Surgical System. We then explore the benefits of our design for human-robot interaction (HRI) and autonomy in RAS. On the HRI side, we show how this “pickup” camera improves depth perception as well as how its additional view can lead to better surgical training. On the autonomy side, we show how automating the motion of this camera provides better visualization of the surgical scene. Finally, we show how this automation work inspires the design of novel execution models of the automation of surgical subtasks, leading to superhuman performance.