Evaluation of (Shared) Autonomy in Robot-Assisted Vitreoretinal Surgery Using a Surgical Model

Background: Robot-assisted vitreoretinal surgery makes it easier for the surgeons to perform precise and dexterous manipulations required in vitreoretinal procedures. Methods: We systematically evaluated manual surgery, conventional two-hand teleoperation, a novel one-hand teleoperation, and automation in a needle positioning task using a realistic surgical eye model, measuring the expert surgeon's performances and the novice's learning curves. Results: The proposed one-hand teleoperation improved the positioning accuracy of expert surgeons (Formula presented.), enabled novices to achieve a consistent accuracy more quickly (Formula presented.), decreased the novice's workload more quickly (Formula presented.), and made it easier for novices to learn to conduct the task quickly (Formula presented.). Moreover, our autonomous positioning achieved an equivalent accuracy to the surgeons. Conclusions: The benefits and potential of task autonomy were shown. Further work is needed to evaluate the proposed methods in a more complex task.