Advances in robotics are pushing the limits of what surgeons can achieve, whether in the form of worm-inspired capsules to crawl through your gut, or systems swallowed in pieces that assemble themselves inside the body.
(Image: Royal College of Surgeons / Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna)
Creeping Camera Capsule
Designed to creep along inside a patient's digestive tract using springy "legs", the robot carries a camera and could provide an alternative to traditional endoscopy. The robot could be used to examine the inside of the gullet, stomach and duodenum for damage or ulcers, and was developed in the CRIM Lab at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy.
Swimming Camera Capsule
Driven by tiny propellors, this camera capsule is also designed to explore the human digestive system. After being taken by mouth, it would "swim" to inspect the area of interest.
Distant Diagnosis
A doctor consults with a nurse, via the RP-7 remote presence robot. As well as having a camera and screen that let the patient and a distant doctor see one another, the robot connects to stethoscopes, otoscopes and ultrasound scanners. This allows the remote physician as close to a real experience as possible.
Muscle Machine
RI-MAN is a prototype hospital porter developed at the RIKEN Bio-Mimetic Control Research Center in Nagoya, Japan. As well as a soft, safe exterior, RI-MAN has touch sensors on its arms and torso to allow it to carefully lift and carry people. In the long term, it is intended to take over the tasks human carers do for the elderly or infirm.
Robot Cameraman
FreeHand allows surgeons to control, using movements of their head and feet, the laparoscopic camera used during minimally invasive surgery ("keyhole surgery"). This means they can reserve their hands for actually performing the procedure.
Prostate Robot
Probot is designed to let surgeons accurately resection enlarged prostates, with minimal effort.
The surgeon specifies the volume to be excised, and the robot automatically cuts it out without further intervention.
A Robot You Can Swallow
The ARES robots – for Assembling Reconfigurable Endoluminal Surgical System – can be swallowed or inserted through natural orifices in pieces. They then assemble themselves inside the body.
The intention is to allow surgery with few, or no, external incisions.
A patient will swallow up to 15 different robotic modules that can travel to the affected site inside the body.
Once there, the component robots reassemble into a larger device capable of carrying out surgical procedures.
Robotic Colonoscope
The Endotics robotic colonoscope uses a series of grippers and
extenders to pull itself along the bowel, rather than being pushed by a
doctor like a conventional colonoscope.
This exerts less pressure onto the bowel wall, reducing the
patient’s discomfort. The robot's motion was inspired by the "inchworm"
caterpillar of the geometer moth.
Blood-Sucking Robot
The prototype Bloodbot is designed to take blood samples. It was developed by Alex Zivanovic and Brian Davies at Imperial College, London. These robots and others are on show until 23 December 2009 at the Hunterian Museum in London.
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