Analysis of the Instrument Vibrations and Contact Forces Caused by an Expert Robotic Surgeon Doing FRS Tasks

INTRODUCTION The widespread growth of robotic minimally invasive surgery has led to the need for a standardized training curriculum. Toward that end, the Institute for Surgical Excellence is conducting the Fundamentals of Robotic Surgery (FRS) validation trial. This multi-site study is testing both novice and experienced surgeons using Intuitive Surgical da Vinci robots and robot simulators. While a standardized curriculum will increase training consistency, the tasks performed on the robot itself will still rely heavily on expert observation of a trainee’s performance. While common in traditional surgical skill assessment, observation-based ratings are both subjective and time consuming for the expert reviewers.