Surgical robotics - an ethnomethodologically informed approach to requirements elicitation with design, prototyping and testing

Anthony Masih ( Oxford University Computing Laboratory )

In manufacture, models produced using computer-aided-design are input to autonomous robots to precisely cut materials to specified shapes. Is it possible to apply the same principle technology to brain-tumour surgery; taking a medical model of a tumourous brain and using this to instruct a robot to cut and remove the tumour?

This question is explored in this research. The requirements of the task are gathered using an ethnomethodologically informed approach. An autonomous manufacturing robot is adapted to the task of tumour resection. An experiment is undertaken to prove the concept and measure the effectiveness of the adapted robot. The results of the experiment prove the concept at a basic level given several fundamental assumptions. Further research is needed to successfully answer the underlying research question.