CardioArm, a snakelike surgical robot developed at Carnegie Mellon University will allow surgeons to perform critical cardiac procedures through one tiny incision.

“The curved robot has a series of joints that automatically adjust to follow the course plotted by the robot’s head. This provides greater precision than a flexible endoscope can offer. “It’s certainly easier to control,” says Robert Webster III, a professor at Vanderbilt University who works on flexible medical probes and was not involved in the CardioArm project.

The CardioArm is operated using a computer and a joystick. It has 102 degrees of freedom, three of which can be activated at once. This allows it to enter through a single point in the chest and wrap around the heart until it reaches the right spot to, say, remove problematic tissue. “The nice thing about [the] design is that each joint follows where you went in space. That’s not always possible in other designs,” says Webster. This kind of control prevents the probe from bumping into sensitive tissue. The disadvantage of a jointed robot, however, is that it’s harder to miniaturize, Webster says.”

You can see the CardioArm in action on YouTube.

Medical Robobics are the future of Biomed, utilizing cutting edge technology and state of the art medical science. If we as Biomeds want to stay competitive we must ensure that we are up to the task of servicing medical robotics!

Via MIT Technology Review

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