Supervised Autonomous Bimanual Suction and Cauterization for Bleeding Control in Low Grade Splenic Trauma
Uncontrolled hemorrhage remains a leading cause of preventable trauma mortality. Timely intervention is not always available, making autonomous systems that can aid in bleeding control a promising alternative. Given the safety-critical nature of the task, supervised autonomy, in which the system executes the technical steps while a human retains oversight, represents a necessary intermediate step toward this goal. In this work, we present a supervised autonomous bimanual robotic framework for injury cauterization (eletrosurgical coagulation) in low-grade splenic trauma. The system integrates real-time bleeding segmentation, markerless tool keypoint tracking, and deep tool-tissue contact detection to coordinate two robotic arms for synchronized suction and cauterization. Evaluated on a novel, cannulated ex vivo splenic hemorrhage model, the system achieved an average bleeding surface cauterization coverage of 82.9% across seven distinct injuries. This work demonstrates the feasibility of using a supervised autonomous bimanual system to deliver targeted coagulation across an injury site.