Space Surgeons

Hello guys and welcome. Now we have a rather creepy kind of robot. If anyone has seen the Matrix you’ll remember that creepy belly-button-bug-thing that the bad guys (the agents) put into Neo. From the company Virtual Incision and  developed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as part of Nasa’s Human Research Program, this robot is designed to perform surgery via the belly button. I know it sounds strange; why not just get a doctor? Well this robot is designed for uses in remote areas, (really remote) like space. Now at first it doesn’t seem really necessary but imagine you’re an astronaut in space and suddenly develop appendicitis. What’s great about this is that this robot is linked to a remote interface. The robot is sent commands from a linux machine within the surgeon interface. The surgery would be performed from a different location (probably Earth in this case) and the robot would send visual feedback what’s going on inside the abdomen. The robot would use carbon dioxide gas to inflate the stomach for better visibility. The robot is said to be controlled via Phantom Omni haptic devices, a monitor and foot pedals.

The robot surgeon weighs 400g. It begins by making an incision in the belly button and then, once inside, can begin to removing a diseased organ or infected appendix. The research team says that the robot can "facilitate minimally invasive surgical resection of abdominal emergencies" including appendectomies, gallbladder removal, prevention of abdominal bleeding and perforation of gastric ulcers. Once the robot is inside, half of the robot remains outside of the body so that the no carbon dioxide gas escapes and the seal is maintained. The robot has a torso and two arms. Each arm has a shoulder and elbow joint which are powered by a DC motor and an onboard control system. The forearms are fitted with specialized interchangeable tools such as a grasper, a tool for cauterising wounds or surgical scissors.

Now obviously this robot has not been actually made available. Virtual Incision will begin testing the robot in zero gravity on a parabolic flight in 2015. Prototypes have been tested in pigs, so there is still some way to go, but I can imagine that this is the first step to robot surgery. Maybe in the future we will see robots that perform multiple different surgeries and all automatically. Without a doubt this robot is the first step to the future of medical practice.

Sources:

Article: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/02/belly-button-surgery-bot-space 

Neo image: http://static02.mediaite.com/geekosystem/uploads/2014/04/matrix-stomach-bug-real-life.jpg 

Space Surgeon image: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/04/02/article-2595059-1CC39B9B00000578-629_634x474.jpg