robotics technology

The robotic arm is an extraordinary multi-functional invention used industrially and medically. The robotic system may be used to accomplish undesirable tasks in the workplace, freeing up more creative and fulfilling positions. Or the robotic arms can be used in stroke therapy, in surgery and to assist paralyzed patients. Who knows where the future of this technology will take us?

Starting in 1975, robotic arms have been used for industrial purposes. In some cases, they do the work more quickly, more accurately and more efficiently than human workers ever could. Yet in other instances, they simply perform work that is too monotonous, dangerous or undesirable for men and women. In the US auto industry, for example, there is one robotic arm for every ten workers. Industrial robots lift heavy objects, handle chemicals, and paint and assemble parts. Rather than replace jobs, the robotic system is intended to free up more creative, fulfilling work for people instead. After all, the Czech word “robota” translates to “drudgery work.”

Using a modified robotic arm, Dr. Alon Wolf and Dr. Howie Choset have developed a machine that can perform minimally-invasive surgery with great accuracy. The invention is called the “CardioARM” and has been designed for abdominal surgery, heart bypass surgery and mouth surgery, but can also be used to perform a laparoscopy, colonoscopy, and arthroscopy. The CardioARM is operated by a joystick and can navigate through the body to the problem areas. The flexible tele-operated probe is programmed to remember pathways and it can take tools into regions that surgeons would otherwise have to slice into. “Tools in operation rooms are not flexible. The CardioARM is flexible enough for remote and hard to reach anatomies,” explains Dr. Wolf. “The heart is a good example… now we don’t have to cut the person open.”

A new report found that two monkeys containing tiny electrodes attached to their brains could control a robotic arm using their thoughts. First researchers used the computer to teach the monkeys to move the arm and soon the monkeys were reaching for food and grabbing it, reaching their mouths two-thirds of the time. “In the real world, things don’t work as expected,” said Dr. Andrew Schwartz, a professor of neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh. “The marshmallow sticks to your hand or the food slips, and you can’t program a computer to anticipate all of that. But the monkeys’ brains adjusted. They were licking the marshmallow off the prosthetic gripper, pushing food into their mouth, as if it were their own hand.” This exciting new robot research promises to help paralyzed patients.

robotic systems

Despite costing $1.5 million per unit, the Da Vinci robotic system is turning heads in hospitals across America. The addition of robotic systems in operating rooms promises more precise surgeries, less damage to the surrounding tissues, smaller incisions, less blood loss, less risk of surgeon fatigue and quicker recovery times. While intelligent robots are far from executing their own surgeries, using autonomous robots and robotic arms as assistants is revolutionizing medical science.

The Da Vinci Surgical System is a groundbreaking innovation that’s garnered much attention by media and surgeons alike over the past decade. Ideally, these new robots will be used in delicate surgeries like heart valve/artery surgery, brain surgery and cancer removal. Telesurgical robotic systems consist of two components; one is a computerized tele-micromanipulator, the other a surgical unit containing three robotic arms. At the start of the surgery, four keyhole-sized incisions are made as entry-points. Down one incision will be the endoscopic camera, which is attached to a fiber-optic cable. The remaining ports will carry tiny surgical tools, which rotate and maneuver using flexible robot wrists. The surgeon sits at a console, watching the 3-D images from the camera and making the necessary motions to perform the surgery, which the robotic system then mimics with much more precision and accuracy.

Robotic systems can benefit surgeons for a number of reasons. First, machines can be extremely precise and nearly infallible, which means less trauma for the patient. Even the most dexterous hand can suffer from fatigue, muscle cramps, shakiness or a slip-up from time to time. Also, the range of motion is limited for human beings, whereas the robotic hand can move in a 360 degree circle, bending every which way it is needed. Secondly, robots allow for minimally invasive procedures, which equates to quicker recovery times. In the past, doctors had to open up a person’s chest to reach difficult areas like the heart ventricle. Now, a mobile robot arm can reach inside with flexible tubes to bend around obstacles and reach the precise location it needs, all within a keyhole-sized insertion.

“I haven’t felt this great in years. I was at a Christmas party last night talking to a woman about my procedure and how it was the best thing I had ever done,” said one woman who recently had a surgery that involved robotic systems. The 49-year-old public accountant’s uterus had become laden with tumors that were too large to be removed by conventional methods, which prevented her from canoeing, biking and playing volleyball. AAMC Surgeon Dr. Paula Radon used a morcellator to cut down the benign tumor tissue until it was removable by trocar. The woman said the surgery changed her life, which shows that robots have their place in medicine.