Console Ergonomics for Bimanual Telesurgery

We partnered with a leading surgical robotics OEM to evaluate the ergonomics of their next-generation telesurgery console across complex multi-hour procedures. The goal: quantify surgeon fatigue and identify the specific interaction patterns that drive it.

Multi-hour bimanual telesurgery imposes sustained cognitive and muscular load. Surgeons reported neck and forearm fatigue but root-cause was unclear — was it the foot pedals, the camera arm logic, the view angle, or the haptic gain?

Mixed-method study across three teaching hospitals. We combined eye-tracking (Tobii Pro Spectrum 1200Hz), surface EMG on trapezius and forearm extensors, NASA-TLX after each procedure, and structured debriefs. Procedures were instrumented with synchronised video and console telemetry.

• 01Foot pedal logic accounted for 41% of forearm bracing micro-movements.
• 02Re-mapping the camera pedal to a dedicated rocker reduced trapezius EMG by 23% over a 90-minute task.
• 03Surgeons' subjective fatigue ratings (NASA-TLX) dropped 18 points on average.
• 04Trainee surgeons benefited 2.4× more than experts from the re-mapping.