Transfer force perception skills to robot-assisted laminectomy via imitation learning from human demonstrations

A comparative study of two force perception skill learning approaches for robot-assisted spinal surgery, the impedance model method and the imitation learning (IL) method, is presented. The impedance model method develops separate models for the surgeon and patient, incorporating spring-damper and bone-grinding models. Expert surgeons' feature parameters are collected and mapped using support vector regression and image navigation techniques. The imitation learning approach utilises long short-term memory networks (LSTM) and addresses accurate data labelling challenges with custom models. Experimental results demonstrate skill recognition rates of 63.61%–74.62% for the impedance model approach, relying on manual feature extraction. Conversely, the imitation learning approach achieves a force perception recognition rate of 91.06%, outperforming the impedance model on curved bone surfaces. The findings demonstrate the potential of imitation learning to enhance skill acquisition in robot-assisted spinal surgery by eliminating the laborious process of manual feature extraction.