A Robotic Surgeon With A Sense Of Touch

Researchers, including one of Indian origin, claimed to have developed the world’s first robotic surgical system that can give surgeons the sense of touch while they conduct keyhole surgery using a computer. The HeroSurg robot is a major breakthrough to current technology, which now limits robotic surgery to the sense of sight. This means laparoscopic or keyhole/micro surgery will be safer and more accurate than ever before by reducing trauma and lowering risk of blood loss and infection. HeroSurg was developed by engineers from Deakin University in Australia and Harvard University in the US. The HeroSurg’s sense of touch, provided through technology known as haptic feedback, would lead to better patient outcomes.

The major drawback of the current system in the lack of tactile feedback. Tactile feedback allows a surgeon to differentiate between tissues and to ‘feel’ delicate tissues weakened by infection or inflammation and dissect them more carefully. Tactile feedback will allow them to use finer and more delicate sutures in microsurgery. The haptics technology would also improve the ability to distinguish between tissues involved with cancer from normal tissue. HeroSurg’s Unique features include collision avoidance capability, modularity and automatic patient/bed adjustment.