An Ergonomic Shared Workspace Analysis Framework for the Optimal Placement of a Compact Master Control Console

Master-Slave control is commonly used for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery (RAMIS). The configuration, as well as the placement of the master manipulators, can influence the remote control performance. An ergonomic shared workspace analysis framework is proposed in this letter. Combined with the workspace of the master manipulators and the human arms, the human-robot interaction workspace can be generated. The optimal master robot placement can be determined based on three criteria: 1) interaction workspace volume, 2) interaction workspace quality, and 3) intuitiveness for slave robot control. Experimental verification of the platform is conducted on a da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK). An in-house compact master manipulator (Hamlyn CRM) is used as the master robot and the da Vinci robot is used as the slave robot. Comparisons are made between with and without using design optimization to validate the effectiveness of the ergonomic shared workspace analysis technique. Results indicate that the proposed ergonomic shared workspace analysis can improve the performance of teleoperation in terms of task completion time and the number of clutching required during operation.