Mechanical and Materials Engineering Publications
Title
Development and evaluation of a sensorized shoulder simulator
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
6-12-2017
Journal
Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1109/CCECE.2017.7946588
Abstract
The need for skilled arthroscopic surgeons is increasing due to the large number of arthroscopic interventions performed annually. Surgical simulators are beneficial training platforms for practicing those difficult to learn surgical tasks. In this study, a sensorized physical shoulder simulator was developed. This simulator incorporates switch sensors for objective assessment of probing tasks and a force sensor for measuring applied forces at the simulator base. In addition, arthroscopic instruments were sensorized with force and position sensors to measure the forces applied at the tip of the instruments and track the position of the tip of these instrument. Face and construct validity of the simulator was assessed by conducting an experiment involving expert and novice subjects. The results show that experts were 90.8% satisfied with the quality and benefits of the simulator. In addition, statistically significant differences were found between experts and novices in seven out of nine metrics investigated here, which supports construct validity of the simulator. Use of the sensorized simulator allows independent training and objective assessment of skill levels, and can enhance surgical training and skills assessment.