VU Inside: Giving Surgical Robots a Human Touch
4,036 views · Published 28 October 2016 · 3:48 · Indexed 31 October 2026
Channel: Vanderbilt University · 2016 · Education
A critical goal in modern surgery is to make procedures as safe and minimally invasive as possible, which often means using robotic tools. Vanderbilt University bioengineer Nabil Simaan says a negative side effect of doing surgery with tiny entry points into the body is that the surgeon loses his or her sense of touch and pressure as well as having a very limited field of view. To address this problem, he is taking robotic surgical tools to the next level by making them incredibly flexible and situationally aware. "Historically a surgeon would open up the patient and he or she would have the best tools possible--human hands,” said Simaan, associate professor of mechanical engineering and otolaryngology. Simaan and his team are creating a flexible robot that can maneuver into hard to reach places and give a sense of touch similar to a human hand. Follow Vanderbilt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vanderbiltu, on Instagram: http://instagram.com/vanderbiltu and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vanderbilt. For more information about VISE, please visit: https://www4.vanderbilt.edu/vise/ For information about A.R.M.A Research Lab, please visit:http://arma.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52&Itemid=57 Follow us: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/visevanderbilt/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/visevanderbilt/ See all Vanderbilt social media at http://social.vanderbilt.edu.
