Helwan University

Faculty of Engineering

MEDICAL ROBOTS

REPORT

By:

Abdelsalam Mahmoud Shiha

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................... 3

2.0 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 4

2.1 HISTORY OF ROBOTS ..................................................................................................................................... 5

2.2 ROBOTS CLASSIFICATIONS ............................................................................................................................ 5

2.3 ROBOTS APPLICATION ................................................................................................................................... 5

3.0 MEDICAL ROBOTS ..................................................................................................................................... 7

4.0 TYPES OF MEDICAL ROBOTS ................................................................................................................. 8

4.1 PROSTHETICS ................................................................................................................................................ 8

4.2 CARE ROBOT ................................................................................................................................................. 9

4.3 IV DRUGS PREPARATION ROBOT ................................................................................................................... 9

4.4 NURSE ROBOT ............................................................................................................................................ 10

4.5 PHARMACIES ROBOTS ................................................................................................................................. 10

4.6 LABORATORY ROBOT .................................................................................................................................. 10

4.7 MINIATURE ROBOTS .................................................................................................................................... 11

4.8 ROBOTS AS PATIENTS ................................................................................................................................. 11

4.9 SURGICAL ROBOTS ...................................................................................................................................... 12

4.9.1 importantance of medical robots ........................................................................................................... 13

Advantages of Robotic Surgery............................................................................................................................ 13

5.0 FAMOUS ROBOTS ..................................................................................................................................... 15

5.1 PUMA ........................................................................................................................................................ 15

5.2 THE DA VINCI ............................................................................................................................................. 16

6.0 FUTURE OF MEDICAL ROBOTS ........................................................................................................... 19

6.1 MEDICAL MICRO-ROBOTS .......................................................................................................................... 19

6.2 SCRUB NURSE ............................................................................................................................................. 20

6.3 INJURY SEVERITY ESTIMATION SYSTEM ..................................................................................................... 20

6.4 BIOPSY ROBOTS .......................................................................................................................................... 20

7.0 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................. 21

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1.0 ABSTRACT

This paper provide an overview of the medical robots, it first give an introduction about what is

robot and its application going through the historical overview then it focus on the different types

of nowadays used medical robots and ends with some future approach of medical robots

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2.0 INTRODUCTION

For many people robot is a machine that imitates a human. As strange as it might seem, there

really is no standard definition for a robot. However, there are some essential characteristics that

a robot must have and this might help you to decide what is and what is not a robot. It will also

help you to decide what features you will need to build into a machine before it can count as a

robot.

Generally the word robot is usually used to refer to a mechanical agent that performs one or more

tasks in which it mimics a human or animal agent either through programming or commands.

In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and

electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or remotely controlled.

One of the most famous definitions or we can say an official definition of a robot comes from the

Robot Institute of America (RIA):

A robot is a reprogrammable, multifunctional machine designed to manipulate materials, parts,

tools, or specialized devices, through variable programmed motions for the performance of a

variety of tasks."

Other definition comes from Webster's Dictionary :

"A robot is an automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to humans or a

machine in the form of a human."

A typical robot has a movable physical structure, a motor of some sort, a sensor system, a power

supply and a computer "brain" that controls all of these elements. Essentially, robots are man-

made versions of animal life -- they are machines that replicate human and animal behavior.

The field of study of robots is referred to as robotics, and people who specialize in robotics are

called roboticists.

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2.1 History of robots

Although the science of robotics only came about in the 20th century, the history of human-

invented automation has a much lengthier past. In fact, the ancient Greek engineer Hero of

Alexandria, produced two texts, Pneumatic and Automata, that testify to the existence of

hundreds of different kinds of “wonder” machines capable of automated movement

The name robot comes from the Czech word robota, which means drudgery or servitude. It was

coined by Karel Capek, a Czech playwright, in his play R.U.R., which stands for Rossum’s

Universal Robots. It was published in 1921, and entered English in 1923.

Since then the term has been applied to a great variety of mechanical devices, such as

teleoperators, underwater vehicles, autonomous land rovers, etc. Virtually anything that operates

with some degree of autonomy, usually under computer control, has at some point been called a

robot

2.2 Robots classifications

Robots can be classified by several criteria, such as their power source, or way in which the

joints are actuated, their geometry, their intended application area, or their method of control.

Such classification is useful primarily in order to determine which robot is right for a given task

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), however, classifies robots in

several different ways on their “Types of Robots” web page. First, it classifies them by whether

they work on Earth or in space. Second, it classifies them by the industry they work in. And

third, it classifies them by the type of jobs they do.

2.3 Robots application

Robots are employed in industries such as manufacturing, medicine, the military, and

transportation. They are used widely in assembly operations, in which they complete tasks such

as:

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• arc welding

• diecasting

• fettling machines

• gas welding

• manipulating machine tools

• placement of items into a structure that’s being built

• sealant application

• spot welding

• spray painting

Robots are also used for parts inspections, making glass, cleaning, monitoring radiation, sorting,

loading and unloading, fastening, forging, and sand blasting. Because they are not human, they

can be used in hazardous situations such as firefighting, military warfare, and bomb detection.

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3.0 MEDICAL ROBOTS

Medical robotics is an advanced discipline within the field of robotics which involves the

development of robots that can perform various medical tasks. Many people think specifically of

surgical robotics when they hear the words “medical robotics,” but in fact robots can do a wide

range of things in hospitals and medical clinics. In addition to being rather interesting to see in

action, medical robotics has the potential to relieve strain on many health care systems by

automating tasks, freeing up health care workers.

A robot may be used as a replacement for a human to perform a task like delivering patient

samples to a laboratory, with delivery robots roaming the halls of a medical facility to collect

samples which are left out for them. Medical robots can also be stand-ins for doctors and nurses

for certain types of health care, such as triage in an emergency room. A well-programmed robot

can quickly interview a patient while taking vital signs, and determine the level of care that he or

she needs.

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4.0 TYPES OF MEDICAL ROBOTS

Nowadays, it is no longer surprising to learn that a hospital’s top performing surgeon is not

human. With unmatched precision and the ability to work without fatigue, medical robots are

obviously one of the most useful applications of robotic technology. These robots are widely

used in various medical practices, including difficult surgical procedures, and have completely

revolutionized the speed and efficiency of health care services in several parts of the world.

Medical robots are considered as one of the best things that ever happened in the medicine

industry this is due to the fact that medical robots provide a lot of help not only to the patients

but to the doctors and other medical personnel as well

There are actually several types of medical robots in today's time and the following are some of

the examples.

4.1 Prosthetics

Prosthetics is one of the types of medical robots wherein some parts of a human body are

replaced with robots. One example of this is a prosthetic leg.

This is when a person loses his or her leg and uses medical robots technology to

aid them with their day to day tasks.

In order for a robotic prosthetic to work, it must have several components to

integrate it into the body’s function. Biosensors detect signals from the user’s

nervous or muscular systems. It then relays this information to a controller located

inside the device, and processes feedback from the limb and actuator (e.g., position, force) and

sends it to the controller. Mechanical sensors process aspects affecting the device (e.g., limb

position, applied force, load) and relay this information to the biosensor or controller.The

controller is connected to the user’s nerve and muscular systems and the device itself. It sends

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intention commands from the user to the actuators of the device, and interprets feedback from the

mechanical and biosensors to the user.

4.2 Care robot

Care robot is another type of medical robot that gives care to the patients such as assisting them

in doing a certain tasks and one example is helping them take their medications. This may be

used as a substitute for taking care of the elderly to make their lives easier and more convenient.

4.3 IV drugs preparation robot

Another use for robots in medicine today is one of robotic preparation of intravenous (IV) drugs.

Robotics make IV preparation faster and more accurate. One IV preparation robot is the

CytoCare System manufactured by Health Robotics. They are programmed with correct dosages

so that the possibility of overdose is virtually eradicated.

In many parts of the world, hospitals use robots for tasks that require precision and promptness,

such as delivering and retrieving supplies and mixing and dispensing medicines. In Europe and

the U.S., a robot is used to mix and measure medications, specifically those used in

chemotherapy. Human mistakes in this process can be very deadly, as the slightest error in the

mix could endanger both patients and the hospital staff. Using a robot thus removes the need for

manual calculation and greatly reduces the possibility of human error.

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4.4 Nurse Robot

Other medical robots patrol hospitals as nurses and staff members. At a medical center in

Maryland, a robot named Mr. Gower navigates the hallways, riding elevators, opening doors and

delivering patient medications to the nurses' station all on its own. Mr. Gower can “pull up to

500 lbs and can work for 12 hours after charging its batteries for only two hours. Aside from

filling the gap created by staff shortages, the robot helps them deliver medications to their

patients faster.

In Houston, patients at the intensive care unit are regularly visited by 5-foot robots with

computer monitors for heads. These bots are remotely piloted by doctors from a command center

on another floor, allowing doctors to simultaneously check up on their patients and read their

vital signs without having to leave their posts. In U.S. areas with sparse specialist coverage,

telemedicine utilizing the same technology allows remote specialists to facilitate procedures like

stroke management and give effective diagnoses. Using a robot’s video camera, a neurosurgeon

can observe and talk to patients and review their CT scans and other lab results even if they are

hundreds of kilometers away

4.5 Pharmacies robots

Robots are also increasingly becoming popular in pharmacies. The McKesson ROBOT-Rxm, for

example, stores and dispenses single doses of drugs for entire hospitals. Pharmacists simply enter

prescriptions into a computer, while the robot collects the dosage by scanning the medications’

barcodes. Finally the robot bags the medicines and keeps track of everything to ensure that the

right medicine reaches the right patient.

4.6 Laboratory robot

Laboratory robotics is the act of using robots in biology or chemistry labs. For example,

pharmaceutical companies employ robots to move biological or chemical samples around to

synthesize novel chemical entities or to test pharmaceutical value of existing chemical matter.

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Laboratory processes are suited for robotic automation as the processes are composed of

repetitive movements (e.g. pick/place, liquid & solid additions, heating/cooling, mixing, shaking,

testing).

4.7 Miniature robots

Miniature robot is inserted through an incision and used to perform medical procedures, remove

or treat the affected part of disease especially cancer deep inside the human body

4.8 Robots as Patients

In some places in the world, the training of medical students is increasingly done through using

robotic patients, which are realistic in having breathing systems installed, synthetic blood, and

mechanical organs.

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4.9 Surgical robots

The most advanced aspect of medical robotics is surgical robotics, in which a robot actually

performs surgery. A surgeon controls the robot from a distance, but the use of a robot instead of

human hands has some distinct advantages. Robotic surgery is less invasive, because only very

small incisions are needed, which decreases the healing time for the patient and reduces the risk

of infection and complications. Robots can also be used in telesurgery; a patient in a remote area

could have access to a specialist in a particular type of surgery through the use of a surgical robot

which could interface with the surgeon at a distance.

Medical robotics has the potential to greatly reduce the size of operating room teams, which

reduces the risk of contamination. Robots do not need assistants to keep the surgical field clear,

pass tools, and perform other tasks, which mean that a surgical team could be reduced to an

anesthesiologist to monitor a patient, and a surgeon to handle the robot. Medical robots may

someday be able to perform complex tasks like monitoring patients while they are under

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anesthesia, or keeping track of patients in critical care, performing routine tasks which are

currently executed by nurses.

Like other forms of technology, medical robotics is constantly reforming and advancing. Several

major universities around the world have medical robotics research facilities, where new tools

are built, refined, and tested. Medical robotics equipment is currently quite expensive; making it

accessible only to well-endowed hospitals, but the potential for providing primary and critical

care in impoverished regions with the use of robots is encouraging to many aid organizations

4.9.1 Importantance of surgical robots

Robotic surgery or robotic-assisted surgery allows the surgeon to perform surgery using a

computer to control tiny surgical instruments remotely. When compared to traditional open and

laparoscopic surgery, robotic instruments can perform task in hard to reach locations inside the

human body through smaller incisions with minimal trauma.

Advantages of Robotic Surgery

1- As with all automation, surgical robots will eventually eliminate the need for some

personnel.

2- The use of a computer console to perform operations from a distance opens up the idea of

telesurgery, which would involve a doctor performing delicate surgery miles away from

the patient. If the doctor doesn't have to stand over the patient to perform the surgery, and

can control the robotic arms from a computer station just a few feet away from the

patient, the next step would be performing surgery from locations that are even farther

away. If it were possible to use the computer console to move the robotic arms in real-

time, then it would be possible for a doctor in California to operate on a patient in New

York. A major obstacle in telesurgery has been latency -- the time delay between the

doctor moving his or her hands to the robotic arms responding to those movements.

3- Having fewer personnel in the operating room and allowing doctors the ability to operate

on a patient long-distance could lower the cost of health care in the long term.

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4- In addition to cost efficiency, robotic surgery has several other advantages over

conventional surgery, including enhanced precision and reduced trauma to the patient.

For instance, traditional heart bypass surgery requires that the patient's chest be "cracked"

open by way of a 1-foot (30.48-cm) long incision. However, with the da Vinci system, it's

possible to operate on the heart by making three or four small incisions in the chest, each

only about 1 centimeter in length. Because the surgeon would make these smaller

incisions instead of one long one down the length of the chest, the patient would

experience less pain, trauma and bleeding, which means a faster recovery.

5- Robotic assistants can also decrease the fatigue that doctors experience during surgeries

that can last several hours. Surgeons can become exhausted during those long surgeries,

and can experience hand tremors as a result.

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5.0 FAMOUS ROBOTS

5.1 PUMA

The first known medical robot utilized by the medical industry was in 1985, when the robot

PUMA 560 placed a needle for a brain biopsy . Three years later, the PROBOT from the

Imperial College London helped doctors perform prostate surgery on a patient. Since then,

persistent studies on robotic systems for specific use in health care were carried out by medical

researchers like Intuitive Surgical. One of its more famous robots is the da Vinci Surgical

System.

5.2 ROBODOC

An early prototype of the ROBODOC System was developed in 1986 when IBM's Thomas J.

Watson Research Center and researchers at the University of California, Davis began

collaborative development of an innovative system for Total Hip Arthroplasty (THA).

In 1992, the ROBODOC System made medical history as the first of its kind to be used on

humans, assisting a surgeon in a THA procedure. This breakthrough opened the way to rapid

development of 3-dimensional image directed, pre-operative planning, and computer guided

robotic surgery.

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5.3 The da Vinci

Intuitive Surgical developed the da Vinci robotic system to perform minimally invasive surgeries

through superior visualization, enhanced dexterity, greater precision, and ergonomic comfort.

With incisions of only 1 or 2 centimeters, surgeons can perform even complex procedures such

as open-heart surgery, according to Intuitive Surgical. The system reduces hospital stays by half,

reducing costs by about one-third, because of less pain and speedier recovery, according to the

company.

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The da Vinci medical robot is controlled remotely by a surgeon from a console, and is designed

to perform highly complex surgeries using a minimally invasive approach. The surgeon

maneuvers the system’s robotic arms while viewing a tiny, high-resolution endoscopic camera

inserted through an incision. The robot’s jointed-wrist capability surpasses the human hand’s

range of motion, allowing for movement in a much smaller space. Successful surgery patients

have therefore reported smaller incisions, less blood, pain and trauma and a faster healing time

than regular surgery.

The da Vinci System is used in several surgical specialties including:

• Urology

• Gynecology

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• Cardiothoracic

• General Surgery

• Colorectal

• Head & Neck

da Vinci Surgery is used to treat a wide range of conditions, including:

• Bladder Cancer

• Colorectal Cancer

• Coronary Artery Disease

• Endometriosis

• Gynecologic Cancer

• Heavy Uterine Bleeding

• Kidney Disorders

• Kidney Cancer

• Lung Cancer

• Mitral Valve Prolapse

• Obesity

• Prostate Cancer

• Throat Cancer

• Uterine Fibroids

• Uterine Prolapse

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6.0 FUTURE OF MEDICAL ROBOTS

6.1 Medical Micro-Robots

In recent years focus has been set on research of miniature robots for minimally invasive medical

treatments and diagnosis within the body.

In future medical technology, nano-robots, (or nanobots) will become the norm for specific drug

delivery systems on a cellular basis. Exact drugs in precise doses to the exact cells may be

performed at first by a trained physician and then later automatically.

Nano robots will also be able to perform minute surgical procedure such as removing cancerous

cells or repairing otherwise damaged cells. The treatment of various mental illnesses will also be

aided by nanobots.

Micro-robots for medical use can be categorized into two main groups, those that are designed

for swimming and those that crawl, gripping the inner pipe walls. The first group might suit

medical applications where almost no flow is applied on the robot, While crawling micro-robots

may theoretically withstand even massive bloodstream flow present in the human blood vessels.

Nevertheless crawling robots that had been designed and fabricated are of impractical sizes for

medical use.

Another approach is a passive in-a-capsule system, which advances through peristalsis alone (a

natural muscular motion). Note that such systems are thus applicable solely in the astrointestinal

system.

The robot hereby presented has the ability to crawl within cavities with similar characteristics as

the typical human body's veins and arteries. The miniaturization achievement is unprecedented,

as is the ability to control the robot's activity for an unlimited period of time, for any medical

procedure.

In the future, researchers hope it will be able to enter the body to diagnose diseases and

potentially deliver drugs directly to infected tumors.

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6.2 Scrub nurse

Since surgeons need to review medical images and records during surgery, a robotic scrub nurse

may someday increase operating room efficiency by recognizing hand gestures and calling up

the specific images that the surgeon needs to view while operating. Vision-based hand gesture

recognition technology could help reduce not only the length of surgeries but also the potential

for infection,

The system under development at Purdue uses a camera and specialized algorithms to recognize

hand gestures as commands that instruct a computer or robot. Further research is needed to

enable computers to understand the context in which gestures are made, so that they can

discriminate between intended and unintended gestures.

. The tracking is achieved through a camera mounted over the screen used for visualization of

images. The system uses a type of camera developed by Microsoft, called Kinect, that senses

three-dimensional space. Eventually, the researchers plan to integrate voice recognition, but will

continue to focus primarily on gesture recognition research.

6.3 Injury Severity Estimation System

A recent Georgia Institute of Technology study found that patients generally responded more

positively to a robotic nurse’s touch when they believed the robot intended to clean their arm, as

opposed to when they believed the robot intended to comfort them. While robots may not ever be

able to compete with humans when it comes to displays of compassion, it is this same lack of

humanity that makes them so useful in other situations, particularly in the line of fire.

Robots can be especially valuable in hostile or high-risk environments that present a danger for

humans, such as search and rescue operations or on the battlefield

6.4 Biopsy Robots

Researchers believe that some routine medical procedures such as breast and prostate biopsies

could be performed in the future with minimal human guidance at less cost and greater

convenience to patients.

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7.0 REFERENCES

1- http://www.wisegeek.com/

2- http://www.thomasnet.com/articles/engineering-consulting/robotics-history

3- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot

4- http://www.electronicsteacher.com

5- www.sooperarticles.com

6- http://prostheticrobotics.com/

7- http://www.robots-and-androids.com/medical-robots.html

8- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laboratory_robotics

9- http://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/component/content/article/9925?start=1