Miniature in vivo Robots for Remote and Harsh Environments

Abstract--Long-term human space exploration will require contingencies for emergency medical procedures including some capability to perform surgery. The ability to perform minimally invasive surgery (MIS) would be an important capability. The use of small incisions reduces surgical risk, but also eliminates the ability of the surgeon to view and touch the surgical environment directly. Robotic surgery, or telerobotic surgery, may provide emergency surgical care in remote or harsh environments such as space flight, or extremely forward environments such as battlefields. However, because current surgical robots are large and require extensive support personnel, their implementation has remained limited in forward environments, and they would be difficult, or impossible, to use in space flight or on battlefields. This paper presents experimental analysis of miniature fixed-base and mobile in vivo robots to support MIS surgery in remote and harsh environments. The objective is to develop ...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: TITB
• Authors: Mark Rentschler, Stephen R. Platt, Kyle R. Berg, Jason Dumpert, Dmitry Oleynikov, Shane Farritor
• Keywords: Space Flight, Surgery, Surgical, TITB 2008