USA: Miniature Surgical Robots

"Laparoscopy reduces patient trauma, but eliminates the surgeon’s ability to directly view and touch the surgical environment. Although current robot-assisted laparoscopy improves the surgeon’s ability to manipulate and visualize the target organs, the instruments and cameras remain constrained by the entry incision. This limits tool tip orientation and optimal camera placement. The current work focuses on developing miniature in vivo robots to assist surgeons during laparoscopic surgery by providing an enhanced field of view from mulitiple angles, by using mobile robots for traversing the abdominal environment, and through the use of dexterous manipulators not constrained by the abdominal wall fulcrum effect.

This work is being done in coordination with the Robotics and Mechatronics Lab, with Associate Professor Shane Farritor, and Research Assistant Professor Steve Platt, in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln."

Da Vinci™ Robot at the UNMC: click here.

Source:
University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC)