Graphical user interface for a robotic workstation in a surgical environment

Surgery using a robotic system has proven to have significant potential but is still a highly challenging task for the surgeon. An eye surgery assistant has been developed to eliminate the problem of tremor caused by human motions endangering the outcome of ophthalmic surgery. In order to exploit the full potential of the robot and improve the workflow of the surgeon, providing the ability to change control parameters live in the system as well as the ability to connect additional ancillary systems is necessary. Additionally the surgeon should always be able to get an overview over the status of all systems with a quick glance. Therefore a workstation has been built. The contribution of this paper is the design and the implementation of an intuitive graphical user interface for this workstation. The interface has been designed with feedback from surgeons and technical staff in order to ensure its usability in a surgical environment. Furthermore, the system was designed with the intent of supporting additional systems with minimal additional effort.

I. Introduction

Surgeries in need of reliable micromanipulation beyond human capabilities, could significatnly benefit from the use of medical robots. The precision of medical robots could improve upon current therapeutic procedures and enable entirely new procedures in ophthalmology. Therefore, with the goal of treating Retinal disorders such as Retinal Vein Occlusion, an eye surgery robot was developed [5]. While an interface to control the robot already exists, there are several functions that are crucial to enabling the surgeon to utilize it to its full potential.