Trajectory optimization of robotic suturing

Abstract

This paper presents progress towards autonomous knot-tying in Robotic Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery. While successful demonstrations of robotic knot-tying have been achieved, objective comparisons of competing approaches have been lacking. In this presentation we describe how to score a proposed procedure in terms of speed and volume. Applying the scoring metric has motivated an improved procedure for knot-tying, as well as a pathway to automated discovery for trajectory optimizations.