A Study on the VR Goggle-based Vision System for Robotic Surgery

Abstract

Robot-assisted surgery (RAS) using the da Vinci surgical system (dVSS) has been widely performed owing to its high-definition stereoscopic visualization and improved maneuverability, which has been developed from minimally invasive surgery. However, there was motivation to resolve the chronic fatigue suffered by surgeons because of stereo viewer, the vision system of the dVSS. Reflecting the clinical opinions, a virtual reality (VR) goggle was proposed to enhance the convenience by replacing the stereo viewer, and its applicability was investigated. Based on the da Vinci research kit, validation of the VR goggle was performed by analyzing the condition of its use and implementing the performance assessment. In addition, user evaluations, such as performance analysis, questionnaire surveys, and ergonomic analysis, were conducted to determine the difference in the performance and satisfaction between the stereo viewer and VR goggle. Following the IRB approval, a retrospective analysis of the results was performed. Based on the comparison between the vision systems, the VR goggle was evaluated positively by the surgeons and novices. Satisfaction with the ergonomic properties of the VR goggle averaged 3.9 on a five-point Likert scale, and there was no significant difference in the performance when using the VR goggle and stereo viewer in both groups. Adopting the VR goggle, the volume of the vision system could be decreased by 87.6%. Considering that the VR goggle was better than the stereo viewer in terms of satisfaction and ergonomic analysis with analogous performance, it has the main contribution that the VR goggle can be a promising candidate as a new vision baseline to research the enhancements of the RAS platform in further studies.