Novel virtual reality based training system for fine motor skills: Towards developing a robotic surgery training system

Background Training surgeons to use surgical robots are becoming part of surgical training curricula. We propose a novel method of training fine-motor skills such as Microscopic Selection Task (MST) for robot-assisted surgery using virtual reality (VR) with objective quantification of performance. We also introduce vibrotactile feedback (VTFB) to study its impact on training performance. Methods We use a VR-based environment to perform MST with varying degrees of difficulties. Using a well-known human-computer interaction paradigm and incorporating VTFB, we quantify the performance: speed, precision and accuracy. Results MST with VTFB showed statistically significant improvement in performance metrics leading to faster completion of MST with higher precision and accuracy compared to that without VTFB. Discussion The addition of VTFB to VR-based training for robot-assisted surgeries may improve performance outcomes in real robotic surgery. VTFB, along with proposed performance metrics, can be used in training curricula for robot-assisted surgeries.