Robots that perform surgery have been around for a while. The da Vinci system, which has been in use since the 90s, electronically translates a surgeon’s hand movement into much smaller movements which can manipulate the tiny instruments used for the surgery. In this same manner the system also detects and eliminates any natural tremors in the surgeon’s movement .

The smaller and more precise incisions that are realized by robotic surgery allow for faster and less painful recovery of patients. These types of robots have reduced expenditures  in many ways,  nevertheless,  the growing strain on healthcare systems of nations around the world requires governments to look for more ways to cut costs often resulting in a reduction of valuable services.

Lengthy hospital stays are costly and often very uncomfortable, particularly for young patients. The Children’s Hospital in Boston is carrying out a 5 robot pilot program where robots are sent home with a child after surgery to deliver extra care. Instead of having to drive into major cities to see specialists several times a week, patients are able to stay at home while communicating with their doctors and nurses at the hospital via the robot. The robot is also capable of taking detailed pictures of post-surgery scars, sending them to back to the hospital for revision. Dr. Hiep T. Nguyen, director of the Children’s Hospital’s Robotic Surgery Research and Training Center thinks that robots like this could eventually replace hospital monitoring with home-based monitoring.

The hospital’s using robots in other areas too; the hospital’s food service team has welcomed six new robotic members. Using a detailed map of the hospital and navigation software that can plan routes and avoid obstacles, these bots are there to give staff a hand. “Our employees sometimes go up and down from the Cafe to patient floors 10 times during one meal,” stated Cathy Hudson, director of operations in Food Services ¨“Robots can relieve so much of the wear and tear on our people”.

You can read more about the hospital’s use of robots in the Boston Globe. Similarly, Hospital San Raffaelle in Milan, Italy has recently been involved in the European project  ALIZ-E. This project is testing the use of  social robots in the hospital care of children with metabolic disorders.

Approximately as large as pills, these tiny robots are made to self-assemble in a human stomach

Earth’s little critters give scientists big ideas

Paolo Dario is a Professor of Biomedical Robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa who is heavily involved in the study of micro-machines for medical purposes. In coordination with 3 other European Universities, Paolo headed the The ARES Project (Assembling Reconfigurable Endoluminal Surgical system) which ran from 2006-2009. The project aimed to develop tiny robots as new surgical tools, capable of entering the human body via oral ingestion or  a minimally invasive incision. While this project specifically focused on the investigation and development of a surgical robot for the gastrointestinal tract, technology such as this can also be applied to the study of the urinary tract and the circulatory and respiratory systems. Where do researchers look for inspiration for the development of these types of machines?

Well, why not worms? Simple invertebrate animals provide scientists with many tips and tricks on how to maneuver through a slippery and unstructured environment such as a human stomach. Find out more about this project in an article featured in last year’s Scientific American. You can also read about the full ARES project HERE

DustCart robot featured in Livorno, Italy 2010

Dario heads many other research projects such as  DustCart project (pictured right) which aims to solve problems for waste authorities across Europe.  He is also the director for the coordination action of the Robot Companions for Citizens FET Flagship.