Robotics Technology Center

Autonomous Surgical Robot Finds and Removes Shrapnels

One of the most remarkable medical advances today are surgical robots that do guide and even help surgeons perform critical operations with ease of excellence.

I am so amazed at how these robots are able to do such critical, flesh-invasive tasks with little or no intervention from surgeons. Like this autonomous robot (see picture) who performs search and removal of tiny metal fragments in human flesh with absolute dexterity and sharpness.

Bioengineers at Duke University in Durham, N.C. have developed an autonomous lab robot who can successfully locate minute metal fragments and guide a needle to the exact location.

In one of their latest experiments,the engineers used a rudimentary tabletop robot with eyes of the 3-D ultrasound technology developed at Duke. It's brain is a basic artificial intelligence program. They simulated the robot's tasks using tiny (2 millimeter) pieces of needle because, like shrapnel, they are subject to magnetism.

In another recent test, the robot successfully located tiny metals in a water bath by using the concept of electromagnetism. The electromagnet help detect these metal fragments, and “once the shrapnel’s coordinates were established by the computer, it successfully guided a needle to the site of the shrapnel,” said A.J. Rogers, who just completed an undergraduate degree in bioengineering at Duke.

Click here to read more about Autonomous Surgical Robot, Artificial Intelligent Robot, Robot that Detects and Removes Shrapnels.