Sony: the robot for microsurgeries

2020: The announcement of the robot for microsurgeries from Sony

At the beginning of September, 2020 researchers from the Harvard institute Vissa and Sony Corporation provided the tiny robotic assistant to the surgeon using whom it is possible to execute very exact microsurgeries. It will allow not only to release space in the operating room, but also to perform operations on especially fragile fabrics and small anatomical structures which are still unavailable to tools of the large robotic systems.

The Sony company provided the robot for microsurgeries

The little robot surgeon is manufactured using the technology called by Pop-Up MEMS which includes the layers of several materials capable to reveal from the root flat form in more complex structures, and the piezoelectric materials making the miniature remote center of the manipulator of the movement ("mini-RCM"). As the manufacturing techniques are quite simple and do not require consolidation of tiny parts, mini-RCM can be made in a mass order much cheaper, than normal micromechanical devices. It is also easy to transport and install the small device of the size of a tennis ball in the operating room.

Researchers tested the new robot, having connected him to Phantom Omni, the tactile controller of production Sensable Technologies. It turned out that use of mini-RCM in small scales increases the accuracy of the movement of a human hand by 68%. Afterwards researchers also used the device for simulation of a kanyulirovaniye of a vein of a retina on synthetic vessels which are approximately twice thicker than a human hair. They could puncture precisely these vessels, without having put damages outside target area. Such accuracy is provided with optical pickups which constantly monitor the movement of the robot and regulate it, compensating accidental trembling of hands.^[1]

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