| Title | Endoscope Surgery Robot Uses Air Power for a Steady Touch | |
| Date | Sunday August 02 2015, @11:55PM | |
| Author | janrinok | |
| Topic | ||
| from the is-that-wind-power? dept. | ||
Japanese researchers have developed an air-powered surgical assist robot that can change a camera view inside a patient’s body with a mere nod by a surgeon.
Emaro is the first pneumatically driven robot in the world that can control an endoscope, a tube-like camera used to see inside the body, to assist surgeons in operations, according to the researchers from Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University.
Emaro consists of a compressor, a control panel and a column that supports an arm that works the endoscope. The surgeon can control its movements in hands-free fashion while working forceps manipulators inside the body and viewing the Emaro camera feed on a large monitor.
Because it's powered by compressed air, the Emaro endoscope can move smoothly and precisely, and the researchers said it can improve the safety of surgery with laparoscopes, a type of endoscope. Laparoscopic surgeries involve the insertion of long fiber-optic tubes through small incisions in the abdomen. Such minimally invasive operations leave smaller scars and can promote better recovery.
The Emaro scope can move along four axes—back and fourth, side to side, up and down and rotational.
At a demo at Tokyo Institute of Technology on Friday, a researcher put on a surgical cap fitted with a gyroscope over the forehead. When he moved his head, the machine would move the endoscope, including the camera and light at its tip. He also used foot switches to send directional controls to the device, and to put it into manual control mode.
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printed from SoylentNews, Endoscope Surgery Robot Uses Air Power for a Steady Touch on 2024-04-19 14:21:27