One of the holy grails of robotic surgery is the ability to perform minimally invasive procedures guided by real-time scans from a magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, machine. The problem is the space inside MRI scanners is tight for a person, let alone a person and a robot. What's more, these machines use very strong magnetic fields, so metal is not a good thing to place inside of them, a restriction that is certainly a problem for robots.
Now researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) are developing a MRI-compatible robotic surgery tool that can overcome those limitations. Their system isn't made of metal, but instead has plastic parts and ceramic piezoelectric motors that allow it to work safely inside an MRI.
That area is uncomfortably near other important organs. Let's hope the scale on the monitor is 1:1...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday July 11 2015, @12:53AM
I think you're right. The only metals I've ever seen in bullets are lead, and copper, except the military. Steel is associated with armor piercing rounds, not commonly in use by sportsmen or muggers on the street, or even by the police.