Exploring Human-Robot Collaboration in Surgery: Initial Insights from Mako Product Specialists
PUBLICATION DATE: 11 November, 2025 PUBLICATION AUTHOR/S: Jasper T Vermeulen, Glenda Amayo Caldwell, Muge G Teixeira, Alan G Burden, Matthias GuertlerHuman-Robot Collaboration (HRC) in surgery is often explored from the perspective of surgeons. However, many robotic procedures require the expertise of technical specialists. Their experiences and perspectives in achieving robotically assisted surgeries remain underrepresented. This paper explores the real-world experiences of technical specialists who work alongside Stryker’s Mako surgical robotic system in the operating theatre. This work presents initial insights from five expert interviews with Mako Product Specialists (MPSs), who play a central role in supporting Mako-assisted joint replacement surgeries. We identified three themes relating to the MPSs’ ergonomic challenges, teamwork negotiations, and workflow disruptions experienced in the operating theatre. Our findings indicate that surgical HRC extends beyond the surgeon–robot dyad, involving distributed expertise and social negotiation across the surgical team. While robotic systems aim to enhance surgical performance, we argue that their designs should consider the full ecology of human collaborators in the operating theatre.
RELATED PROGRAM/S:Designing Socio-technical Robotic Systems Program based at QUT Publication link
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