Real-Time Haptic Performance Feedback for Model-Based Surgical Skill Training

该项目的目标是通过在通常可用的视觉反馈中添加在线振动触觉（触觉）性能反馈，使基于虚拟现实的模拟器中的血管内手术训练更快、更一致、更有效。有三个研究目标。第一个目的是寻求确定最合适的手术性能指标，以提供补充反馈，并确定最适合血管内手术导航任务的触觉提示频率。第二个目标是在血管内模拟器ANGIO Mentor上实现振动触觉反馈，然后评估两组受训者对血管内导航技术的学习情况。一组将收到实时的基于性能的触觉反馈，另一组将作为对照组。第三个目标是对经验结果进行建模，并使用这些模型来确定如何改进培训协议以优化技能习得。另外一组人体实验将测试优化的反馈方案。该项目将促进国家的健康、繁荣和福利，使手术培训更快、更一致，从而提高血管内手术的成功率，改善患者的预后。该项目还将通过提供外科医生如何学习的数据，更广泛地推进技能获取科学。外展和指导计划将进一步扩大工程领域代表性不足群体的参与。先前的研究表明，从手术工具尖端运动学计算的运动平滑度测量是外科专业知识的有力预测指标。此外，研究表明，提供基于这些指标的实时触觉反馈可以积极影响非手术任务的任务完成时间和轨迹。在这个项目中，研究团队将利用虚拟现实手术模拟器平台的数据收集能力作为提高手术培训效率和效果的第一步。该计划旨在为血管内外科受训者提供补充的实时、个性化、基于表现的反馈。这种基于工具运动平滑度和运动协调性的反馈将被编码为振动触觉线索，通过可穿戴触觉设备提供给受训者，当他们导航到VR模拟器中的模拟解剖目标时。涉及外科住院医师的人类受试者实验将检查血管内手术背景下人类技能习得的复杂学习动态。将技能习得的数学模型拟合到实验数据中，以确定指导实时补充反馈适应的原则，以提高学习效果和培训效率。该项目的研究结果将促进对补充反馈在技能习得中的潜在作用的理解，这将最终促进对人类运动控制、血管内手术、触觉、动力系统建模和实验心理学社区的相关理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this project is to make endovascular surgical training in virtual reality-based simulators faster, more consistent, and more efficacious by adding online vibrotactile (haptic) performance feedback to the visual feedback that is customarily available. There are three research objectives. The first objective seeks to identify the most appropriate measures of surgical performance to provide as supplemental feedback and to determine the frequency of haptic cueing most appropriate for endovascular surgical navigation tasks. The second objective seeks to implement the vibrotactile feedback on the ANGIO Mentor endovascular simulator, and then assess learning on endovascular navigation techniques in two groups of trainees. One group will receive real-time performance-based haptic feedback and the other will serve as the control group. The third objective seeks to model the empirical results and to use the models to determine how to refine the training protocols to optimize skill acquisition. An additional set of human subject experiments will test the optimized feedback scheme. This project will advance the national health, prosperity and welfare making surgical training faster and more consistent, which should improve the success rate of endovascular surgery and improve patient outcomes. The project will also advance the science of skill acquisition more generally by providing data on how surgeons learn. Outreach and mentoring programs will further broaden participation of underrepresented groups in engineering.Previous research has demonstrated that movement smoothness measures computed from surgical tool tip kinematics are strong predictors of surgical expertise. Further, it has been shown that providing real-time haptic feedback based on these metrics can positively influence task completion time and trajectory on a non-surgical task. In this project, the study team will leverage the data collection abilities of a virtual reality surgical simulator platform as a first step towards improving the efficiency and efficacy of surgical training. The plan is to provide endovascular surgical trainees with supplemental real-time, individualized, performance-based feedback. This feedback, based on measures of tool movement smoothness and motor coordination, will be encoded as vibrotactile cues provided to the trainee via a wearable haptic device as they navigate to simulated anatomical targets within the VR simulator. Human subject experiments involving surgical residents will examine the complex learning dynamics that underly human skill acquisition within the context of endovascular surgery. Mathematical models of skill acquisition will be fitted to the experimental data to identify principles guiding the adaptation of real-time supplemental feedback with the aim of improving learning outcomes and training efficiency. The project's findings will advance an understanding of the potential role of supplemental feedback on skill acquisition, which will ultimately advance understanding of relevance to human motor control, endovascular surgery, haptics, dynamical systems modeling, and experimental psychology communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.