Calling Doctor Roboto

Mechanical Engineering, May 2008 by Brown, Alan S

Robot developer Adept Technology Inc., of Livermore, Calif., will collaborate with the United Kingdom's Prosurgics Ltd. to develop robots to perform image-guided and navigated neurological and soft tissue surgery. This unusual combination marries Adept's knowledge of industrial robots and vision systems with Prosurgics' experience in surgical operating rooms.

Hospitals are increasingly interested in using robotic systems to perform minimally invasive procedures. Surgeons currently do this by inserting an endoscope-a snakelike. device that contains a light, lens, and surgical instruments-through a small incision in the body. The surgeon then uses the images from the endoscope to view and manipulate tissue and organs.

Surgical robots enable surgeons to work with larger-than-life, three-dimensional images of body parts. As the surgeons manipulate their tools on the screen, the robot smooths their motions and scales them down to the size of the actual body on the operating table.

Engineers introduced robots to the operating room in the late 1990s, but they got off to a bumpy start, said Adept chief technology officer David Pap Rocki. "They introduced a lot of technology at once and failed to take into account operating room workflow, sterilization, and even how much space was available," he explained. Yet 3-D surgical navigation systems continued to improve, and eventually the robots began to catch up.

Prosurgics hopes to take advantage of Adept's experience with industrial robots. "Packaging and medical robots have different constraints and goals," explained Pap Rocki. "In packaging, you want high speed and repeatability. In surgical, you need controlled motion and accuracy. But the underlying science and engineering is very similar."

Pap Rocki said that Adept will focus on robotic vision systems, controlled motion, mechanical design, and servo control to build a next-generation surgical robot.

The new system, for example, will use filters to remove microtremors in surgeons' hands, so robotic motions are smooth yet precise. Adept will also adapt its vision technology for surgery. The system currently registers parts moving on a conveyor belt against a template so a robot can determine their quality and orientation before manipulating them..

"With a surgical robot, we want to register the pre-operative image with the patient and the surgeon's instruments-all in an area you can't see-and maintain that registration if the patient moves."

The deal positions Adept in a fastgrowing market. Another pioneer in the field, Intuitive Surgical Inc., has sold 700 of its million-dollar da Vinci surgical systems since 1999. Adept believes that robots now perform more than half of all prostate removals in the United States, and points to a study by BCC Research that estimates a market for $2.5 billion surgical robots by 2011.

This section was edited by Associate Editor Alan S. Brown.