The Future of Robotics: Impacts of HCAI
Authors: Nicodemus Ashley 
Published: September 2024

Robotics and AI have been around for a long time now. The first surgical robot was used in surgery 39 years ago. Many have been created since then with R&D teams trying to match robotic abilities to high-risk points in a procedure and achieve improved outcomes. It was assumed that the promise of improved outcomes would be enough to drive adoption and motivate surgical centers to accommodate their logistical needs. These assumptions have proved to be accurate and adoption rates have continued to climb along with the increased expectations of the return on the robotics investment. However, some debate the value and believe that buying a robot is more of a marketing decision than a decision borne out of a belief that better results will be achieved.

With the recent interest in AI, expectations are changing again. Generative AI has proven that well “packaged” can provide accessible value in ways people have not expected. What has made solutions such as ChatGPT successful is that, like Google with its single-line search field, a high degree of usability and a natural way of working, can accelerate the adoption of an emerging technology. Although robotics has been adopted in some situations, nobody talks about its potential in the same way that people are currently talking about AI. The reason is that, unlike a technology like ChatGPT, the current generation of robotics does not fit the natural usage pattern of surgeons. UEGroup believes that Human-Centered AI (HCAI) provides the best framework for allowing robotics to be more widely adopted and take on the role of “augmenting” the user rather than forcing them to work in an entirely different way. To look at robotics from a human perspective requires a rethinking of how the entire experience is structured. To bring this notion to life, robotic use in spine surgery will be used as an example to illustrate the potential confluence of AI and surgical robotics.

If an HCAI-based surgical robot experience was designed today, how would that look different from the current solutions? First, we would need to look at the current behavior of surgeons and how they make decisions. I have personally observed spine surgery cases in each of the primary approaches: open, minimally invasive with navigation, minimally invasive endoscopic, and robotic. I have interviewed every role involved in a spine surgery case, and I have personally removed bone and placed pedicle screws in cadaver labs. Based on this experience with both traditional and robotic-assisted surgery, I will highlight specific ways in which AI will likely impact surgeons' interactions with surgical devices, how that relates to future human factors/usability considerations, and how the emerging field of HCAI is likely to become a standard part of robotic medical device designs in the future.

This talk is meant to inspire a new way of thinking about emerging technology trends and shifting market expectations. It will give attendees a peek into spine surgery and the insights pulled from generative research interviews, direct observation, and hands-on experience that can attendees imagine truly tailor- made and innovative robotic solutions. That talk will be based on a conceptual scenario that illustrates how insights presented in this talk can be converted to novel implementations of robotics technology.