French, Anna2018-09-212018-09-212018-06https://hdl.handle.net/11299/200190University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation.June 2018. Major: Mechanical Engineering. Advisor: Timothy Kowalewski. 1 computer file (PDF); iii, 85 pages.Surgical technical skill has a direct impact on patient health outcomes. Robotic surgical procedures present an opportunity for motion analysis-based skill assessment due to their readily available data streams detailing all manner of measurements about the tool motion. This proposes features that can help discern degrees of surgical skill. It also analyzes the importance of background contextual information in videos of surgical procedures, with regard to a crowd-sourced rater's ability to rate a surgeon's ability when background contextual information from a procedure is removed.enCrowdsourcingMachine LearningMinimally invasive surgeryMotion AnalysisRoboticsSurgical Skill EvaluationThesis or Dissertation