Enhancing Surgical Process Modeling for Artificial Intelligence development in robotics: the SARAS case study for Minimally Invasive Procedures

Nowadays Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is playing an increasingly major role in the clinical practice also thanks to a rapid evolution of the available medical technologies, especially surgical robotics. A new challenge in this respect is to equip robots with cognitive capabilities, in order to make them able to act autonomously and cooperate with human surgeons. In this paper we describe the methodological approach developed to comprehensively describe a specific surgical knowledge, to be transferred to a complex Artificial Intelligence (AI) integrating Perception, Cognitive and Planning modules. Starting from desk researches and a strict cooperation with expert surgeons, the surgical process is framed on a high-level perspective, which is then deepened into a granular model through a Surgical Process Modelling approach, so as to embed all of the needed information by the AI to properly work. The model is eventually completed adding the corresponding Process Risk Analysis. We present the results obtained with the application of the aforementioned methodology to a Laparoscopic Radical Nephrectomy (LRN) procedure and discuss on the next technical implementation of this model.