BU researchers develop tube robot for tricky operations (video)
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted May 27th 2010 12:07PM
posted May 27th 2010 12:07PM
When performing keyhole surgery, the instruments come in one of two varieties: long and straight and not very maneuverable, or extremely flexible and not very useful -- but this is about to change. Researchers at Boston University have developed something called a concentric tube robot, which uses a series of telescoping curved tubes to twist itself around the inside of the human body, while still being able to deliver enough force for medical procedures. It's been used to perform heart surgery on pigs, but it has a long way to go before it's ready to be used on human beings. You know, we weren't entirely thrilled about letting a robot draw blood -- we can't imagine a scenario where we let one of these things operate on our heart. Video after the break.
Just no!
@One Love
Its so long and cold...
It's a series of tubes! Like the Internet. Cool.
I'd never, ever, want a heart surgery, let alone this little, yet menacing enough, surgeon overlord wander through my veins!
@loocas so, you want your ribs to be cracked open en a big scar in your chest?
That's fantastic but even more astonishing will be the day that will be possible swallow nano robots to perform operations and maintanance of our bodies.
As being a person that has had heart surgery, this is a dream come true as the alternative is OPEN HEART surgery.
I forfeit myself to my robot overloards
like this robot at 5:30.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGSR4EJ48YE
The static picture for this article makes me highly uncomfortable.
For starters, "robotic" surgeons are really kind of misunderstood.
"robot", to me, implies a degree of autonomy.
I do not think that is really the case here.
These are more remote controlled surgical instruments.
One of their great benefits, other than humans not needing a big enough hole to stick their own hands into you - is that they are ultra precise and stable. So much like a robot can place tiny chips on tiny solder pads on a circuit board with more precision - to too can one of these robotic surgical outfits more precisely place their probes and wands and cures about your body.
The other breakthrough these will eventually lead to is remote surgery I suspect.
That will be great for the right as they won't even have to let evil foreigners into their god-fearing land (aka USA) for important jobs we need filled - like cardiac surgeon.
They can just have them do it from the safe distance of their heathen, unclean homelands.
This is proof that aliens did crash in Roswell, New Mexico in the 50s. Clearly this 'probing' technology has been reverse engineered from the wreckage.
What the heck are you talking about? Of course you want the machine doing your surgery ESPECIALLY because it needs smaller access holes and can move much more precisely than a human. Besides, you're just a bio-robot anyway.
That's strange, every time I press 'Make Better', the screen displays 'Liquify'
Cardiorobotics is doing something similar commercially, spinning out of a CMU Robotics lab.
http://www.cardiorobotics.com/
"...we can't imagine a scenario where we let one of these things operate on our heart."
Okay, imagine this: you need heart surgery, and the chance of dying are bigger if performed the 'classic' way, whilst if you let this 'robot' operate, you will probably survive and be cured. How does it sound now? Not so bad, eh?
Medical advancement is good, gj guys!!!
This is not an autonomous robot. Dunno where the "robot overlord" stuff is coming from. I have a friend that works in the business (The company that makes the wildly popular Da Vinci) and I can assure you that the one place where there will never be (or the last place that there will ever be) autonomous robots is surgery. This is a robot that is controlled by a doctor.