[translation mine] Da Vinci is a robot that is completely piloted by a surgeon. It enables the achievement of an extreme precision of gesture during certain delicate procedures, all while reducing the risks associated with a surgeon's trembling hands.
Comfortably seated in his pilot's chair, a specialist can also undertake a "tele-operation" on a patient located thousands of kilometers away. It gives patients access to better specialists while limiting the fatigue of the practitioner and reducing costs associated with travel.
The robot is composed of a stereoscopic camera and mechanical arms that have instruments attached for a procedure.
In this video from Youtube, watch as Da Vinci sews a cut in a grape.
Does anyone have any experience with tele-operations?
(Score: 2) by TheLink on Friday August 21 2015, @04:15PM
Two seems suboptimal for many common scenarios - needing to hold/do various stuff while doing the sutures. Perhaps you may need two doctors to control 4 robotic hands for advanced/difficult surgeries but for other surgeries one doctor could control 4 robotic hands with computer assistance.
For bonus points have the images/cameras + hands be able to move in unison with a moving body part- so that you can fix it while it's still moving ;).
(Score: 2) by skullz on Friday August 21 2015, @06:53PM
That would be awesome but not reasonable without having a program that could to simple surgeries on its own. The doc trains and trains with two hands, asking him or her to control > 2 sounds like it would blow up quickly because you are asking them not to adapt heavily practiced motor skills to a machine interface but to learn a new set of skills entirely. Related but very different.
Interestingly enough in one of their related videos they show a 3rd arm with a clamp holding the stick which the grape is attached to. It looks like the doc activated the clamp arm to secure the grape and then switched the active arms to the pincers so maybe they are half way there.