AI-Enabled Surgeon-Robot Teamwork
This is a new project in the lab where we are teaching robots how to do surgery by learning from human surgeon demonstrations. Then, when the robot is ready, we have it attempt the procedure itself, with coaching from the human surgeon. The goal is eventually to have robots who are able to help surgeons by performing portions of surgical procedures (for example, tying sutures or retracting tissue away from the surgical field) so that surgery can be performed more efficiently. In the long term, we hope to address the looming surgeon shortage by making robots able to do the easier surgeries reliably, so that human surgeons can focus on the more complex and challenging surgeries. This project is just getting started. Check back here soon for a additional results!