Thread: Better Surgery With New Surgical Robot

Better Surgery With New Surgical Robot

ScienceDaily - Robotic surgery makes it possible to perform highly complicated and precise operations. Surgical robots have limitations, too. For one, the surgeon does not 'feel' the force of his incision or of his pull on the suture, and robots are also big and clumsy to use. Therefore TU/e researcher Linda van den Bedem developed a much more compact surgical robot, which uses 'force feedback' to allow the surgeon to feel what he or she is doing.

Van den Bedem intends to market Sofie, the 'Surgeon's Operating Force-feedback Interface Eindhoven'.

One of the distinctive properties of Sofie is the 'force feedback', i.e. 'tactile feedback' in the joysticks with which the surgeon operates. This counter pressure enables a surgeon to feel exactly what force he applies when making a suture or pushing aside a bit of tissue. The finishing touch of this, the control of the force feedback, is being developed.

Moreover, Sofie is quite compact and hence less of an obstacle in the operating theater and above the patient. Its small dimensions come with an added bonus: Sofie's slave is not on the floor, but is mounted on the operating table. This averts the need of resetting everything when the operating table and the patient are moved or tilted. Further, Sofie makes it possible to approach an organ from different sides and can even operate 'around the corner'. Van den Bedem built the robot with assistance from TU/e's technical department. The university has patented this know-how.

The researcher expects that it will definitely take some five years or so before Sofie can really be put on the market.

Van den Bedem last week obtained her PhD degree at TU/e for a new type of surgical robot, Sofie. More specifically: she was awarded the title for the 'slave' of the robot, the robotic section performing the operation at the table. Van den Bedem built a prototype for this. The other components Sofie consists of are a master, the surgeon's 'control panel', with driven joysticks.

Story Source:
The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Eindhoven University of Technology.

Originally Posted by maniclion

This robot is a tool that still needs the surgeon, all those manufacturing jobs still need people to monitor the machines, to repair them, program them and what not, if anything using robots makes several more jobs for humans, a cutting robot who may have replaced one human now needs the repairs, maintenance, supplier for new cutting apparatuses, lubrication supplier, the person who designs them, programs them etc, etc...it's only replacing lower level jobs and forcing us to get smarter...not until we have robots designing, repairing and maintaining robots without any human intervention do we have to worry about being obsolete....

Yeah, robots need people to operate them. I used to work at a factory where they were constantly adding robots and reducing staff, so you can't tell me that a factory adding robots is going to employ more people. Some of the robots did the job of up to 8 people and it took 1 person to run them. They openly admitted that a big part of the reason they added the robots was to reduce the amount of people they employed and therefore cut back on the amount of wages, insurance, etc., they had to shell out. Sure they still needed humans but that number was reduced.

That's great that this particular robot needs a human to operate it - I've seen many that don't except for maintenance, etc.

That is actually what I went to college for and have a degree in (automation and robotics, that is).