Our robot, the Rembrandt, was modeled after the Da Vinci system(tm). It has one arm instead of three, but both have endowrists that hold surgical instruments. The endowrists can snip, clamp and stitch tissue. The Da Vinci(tm) has sensors that allows the surgeon to "feel" the tissue that he or she is working on. The surgeon manipulates the robot from the console, a few meters to thousands of miles away from the actual surgery. When the surgeon is far away it is called Telepresence. The surgeon sees a 3D image of what the robot is doing. This image is generated by a computer and sent to the console through a series of wires. The surgery begins when the surgeon makes several centimeter long incisions. This is called minially invasive surgery (MIS). One of the arms on the Da Vinci(tm) holds an tiny camera which is inserted in the body and sends the picture to the console. This camera is called an endoscope. The other two have a standard surgical tips which can be equipped with tools such as scissors a d dissectors. Throughout the procedure, the surgeon is seated at the console with his/her head resting on it, looking at an image of the surgery. The comfortable position makes it easier to perform accurate, delicate surgeries. This camera sends the image to a computer which creates a 3-D image so that the surgeon can see more accurately what is important instead of what can distract them. This image is so real, surgeons have actually tried to reach inside the picture to perform the surgery. The console can zoom in and out, so the surgeon has a better view; then software adjusts the surgeon's movements to make them smaller.
However, we have slightly modified the Da Vinci(tm) while creating the Rembrandt. We only have one arm instead of three, but it gets the point across of what the other two would do. The Rembrandt is controlled by foot pedals and a keyboard. On the end of the arm, is a camera that transmits an image via a USB cable to a laptop that we have set up in the console. This allows surgeons to perform the "operation" without having to look up at the patient. The Rembrandt has 32 gears and 5 motors. These motors and the camera double as counter-weights that are desperately needed because the arm is quite long, and the base cannot support itself if it is down.
We also built a nanobot that follows a fiber optic light through the veins of the patient, pinpointing blockage and performs small removals, such as blood clots in a patients' veins. It has one light sensor. A nanobot is a microscopic robot that is becoming very useful to scientists as they find more uses for it.
There is also a LASIK(tm)-modeled robot.This treats near and far sightedness and astigmatism. It slices off the top layer of the cornea and repairs the middle layer (stroma). Another type of eye surgery which is called Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK(tm)), reshapes the cornea by sculpting using a laser and is performed every day to stop the need of glasses on the patient. This is proven to have a shorter healing time. We used a robot that originally drew circles, and used it to cut circles instead. It has two touch sensors, a light sensor used as a rotation sensor, 2 motors and 9 gears.
There is little doubt that that the development of robotic surgical systems is a prospect that is easier and more precise. At some time in the future, hospitals might regard robots as standard tools of surgical equipment.
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