title: Modeling surgical tool selection patterns as a "traveling salesman problem" for optimizing a modular surgical tool system.
abstract: As modular systems come into the forefront of robotic telesurgery, streamlining the process of selecting surgical tools becomes an important consideration. This paper presents a method for optimal queuing of tools in modular surgical tool systems, based on patterns in tool-use sequences, in order to minimize time spent changing tools. The solution approach is to model the set of tools as a graph, with tool-change frequency expressed as edge weights in the graph, and to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem for the graph. In a set of simulations, this method has shown superior performance at optimizing tool arrangements for streamlining surgical procedures.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE, USA.
authors.forename: Carl A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Dmitry
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Oleynikov
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D010535:Laparoscopy; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012371:Robotics; D014481:United States