More-flexible robots could allow for less-invasive operations.
A snakelike surgical robot from Carnegie Mellon University could let a surgeon performing a critical heart operation make just one incision.
Known as the CardioArm, the curved robot has a series of joints that automatically adjust to follow the course plotted by the robot's head. This provides greater precision than a flexible endoscope can offer. "It's certainly easier to control," says Robert Webster III, a professor at Vanderbilt University who works on flexible medical probes and was not involved in the CardioArm project.
By Kristina Grifantini
Full Story: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/20516/?nlid=985