Trending Techs

A robot has performed laparoscopic surgery on the soft tissue of a pig without the guiding hand of a human -- a significant step in robotics toward fully automated surgery on humans. Designed by a team of Johns Hopkins University researchers, the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) is described in Science Robotics.

"Our findings show that we can automate one of the most intricate and delicate tasks in surgery: the reconnection of two ends of an intestine. The STAR performed the procedure in four animals and it produced significantly better results than humans performing the same procedure," said senior author Axel Krieger, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering.

Working with collaborators at the Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. and Jin Kang, a Johns Hopkins professor of electrical and computer engineering, Krieger helped create the robot, a vision-guided system designed specifically to suture soft tissue. Their current iteration advances a 2016 model that repaired a pig's intestines accurately but required a large incision to access the intestine and more guidance from humans.

"What makes the STAR special is that it is the first robotic system to plan, adapt, and execute a surgical plan in soft tissue with minimal human intervention," Krieger said.

As the medical field moves towards more laparoscopic approaches for surgeries, it will be important to have an automated robotic system designed for such procedures to assist, Krieger said.

This will be a significant step toward fully automated surgery for humans in near future.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Johns Hopkins University. Originally written by Catherine Graham. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.