Have you ever experienced the pain of open-heart surgery? Ever heard about robot-assisted cardiac surgeries? It is a heart surgery done through very small cuts in the chest using medical robots in a way that is much less invasive than open-heart surgery. Therefore, the modern approach of AI in equipping the medical field with superpowers could be via medical robots. They are continuing to evolve alongside advancements in machine learning, data analytics, computer vision and other technologies.

Medical robotics comprises mainly surgical robots. In addition to surgical robots, other two major types could be identified as assistive robots including wearable robots and rehabilitation devices and robots mimicking the human body including prostheses, artificial organs, and body-part simulators.

The DaVinci, The Xenex Germ-Zapping Robot, The PARO Therapeutic Robot, Targeted therapy micro-robots, Clinical Training Bots, The CyberKnife, Telepresence Robot Surrogates and Robotic nurses are the robots identified as surgical robots. Surgical robots are used in most forms of telemanipulation, which use the surgeon’s activators on one side to control the “effector” on the other side. Surgical robots such as DaVinci can connect to the cloud to assist surgeons while in the operating room, as it mines through the large sets of open MRI data associated with patients with similar medical conditions. They can access the personal cloud data stream from a patient’s exercise band or smartphone GPS.

Robodoc is a robot designed commercially for hip and knee surgery on human patients. It was initially developed for total hip replacement surgery which involves preparing an elongated cavity in the femur and a rounded cavity in the acetabulum to accommodate the two components of a hip prosthesis. Robodoc comprised of a display connected to a monitor like a visualization provided by most navigation systems It was later modified to do total knee replacements which ensured safe milling of cavities.

Medical robotic systems offer a wide range of advantages compared to manual machines. They have been programmed to multi-task with the objective of eliminating physician fatigue. They are the pioneers in completing tasks autonomously, efficiently and accurately. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical robots are used in many countries for checking patients, getting lab samples, and storing specimens, while ensuring social distance among doctors and patients. Telepresence, medical transportation, and disinfection are the irreplaceable tasks redeemed by them.

It is a fact that each technology possesses cons along with pros. A major limitation of the DaVinci system described above is that it requires several access ports and direct access to the surgical targets from the ports of entry. An arm collision could happen while using them. A disadvantage of robotic catheters is the lack of strength and stiffness at their tips. For tissue manipulation tasks, such as tissue penetration and suturing, the tip of the robotic catheter should be stiff enough to apply sufficient force to manipulate tissue. These constraints of robotic catheters limit their applications. Commercial robots are also expensive, and the cost of surgical operation is more than traditional minimally invasive procedures or open surgeries.

Fundamental knowledge of biological systems is a must in designing them with safety precautions. Building medical robots that can overcome the above limitations would be a great contribution a tech enthusiast can give for advancing technology for humanity.