The Choreography of Care: An Ethnographic Study of Human-Robot Collaboration in Makoplasty Surgeries

Vermeulen, JT; Dwyer, JL; Burden, A; Caldwell, G; Teixeira, M; Guertler, M; Crawford, R

The Choreography of Care: An Ethnographic Study of Human-Robot Collaboration in Makoplasty Surgeries

Vermeulen, JT Dwyer, JL Burden, A Caldwell, G Teixeira, M Guertler, M

Crawford, R

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Publisher:: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Publication Type:: Conference Proceeding
Citation:: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings, 2026, pp. 1-19
Issue Date:: 2026-04-13

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Vermeulen, JT
dc.contributor.author	Dwyer, JL
dc.contributor.author	Burden, A
dc.contributor.author	Caldwell, G
dc.contributor.author	Teixeira, M
dc.contributor.author	Guertler, M https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7062-6349
dc.contributor.author	Crawford, R
dc.date.accessioned	2026-10-09T07:43:43Z
dc.date.available	2026-10-09T07:43:43Z
dc.date.issued	2026-04-13
dc.identifier.citation	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings, 2026, pp. 1-19
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/197143
dc.description.abstract	Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) in surgery is rarely a straightforward interaction between one human and one robot. In joint replacement surgeries performed with the Mako robot (Makoplasty), the robotic arm enhances surgical precision while also affecting how collaboration unfolds in the operating theater. Utilizing over 80 hours of hospital-based fieldwork, including observations of 15 Makoplasty surgeries and 10 interviews, we examine how the Mako robot shapes surgical HRC. We demonstrate how surgical teams coordinate via tacit cues, negotiated boundaries, and adaptive role shifts across phases of operation. Through vignettes, we highlight the pivotal role of supporting actors, such as nurses and robotic specialists, in maintaining flow and reveal how responsibility is distributed temporally among actors depending on task demands. We argue that surgical HRC is best understood as a multi-actor choreography rather than a surgeon-robot dyad, offering design implications for co-located surgical HRC systems that support distributed collaboration.
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
dc.relation	http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/IC200100001
dc.relation.ispartof	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings
dc.relation.ispartof	Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1145/3772318.3791382
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.title	The Choreography of Care: An Ethnographic Study of Human-Robot Collaboration in Makoplasty Surgeries
dc.type	Conference Proceeding
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology/School of Electrical, Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/UTS Groups
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/UTS Groups/Robotics Institute (RI)
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/UTS Groups/Centre for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM)
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/UTS Groups/Robotics Institute (RI)/Robotics Institute (RI) Associate Members
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/UTS Groups/International Development Research Network
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/UTS Groups/Innovation and Entrepreneurship Collaborative
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
dc.rights.license	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.date.updated	2026-10-09T07:43:17Z
pubs.publication-status	Published

Abstract:

Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) in surgery is rarely a straightforward interaction between one human and one robot. In joint replacement surgeries performed with the Mako robot (Makoplasty), the robotic arm enhances surgical precision while also affecting how collaboration unfolds in the operating theater. Utilizing over 80 hours of hospital-based fieldwork, including observations of 15 Makoplasty surgeries and 10 interviews, we examine how the Mako robot shapes surgical HRC. We demonstrate how surgical teams coordinate via tacit cues, negotiated boundaries, and adaptive role shifts across phases of operation. Through vignettes, we highlight the pivotal role of supporting actors, such as nurses and robotic specialists, in maintaining flow and reveal how responsibility is distributed temporally among actors depending on task demands. We argue that surgical HRC is best understood as a multi-actor choreography rather than a surgeon-robot dyad, offering design implications for co-located surgical HRC systems that support distributed collaboration.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/197143