Explore more about: Robotics

The lungs are one of the most difficult organs for physicians to navigate. A collaborative team of NIH-funded researchers have built a compact robotic system that can autonomously steer around anatomical obstacles within the lungs of live animals.

A beating heart makes for a formidable surgical arena, but a new robotic catheter could someday equip surgeons to operate in the cardiac environment with greater ease.

A Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering research team is conducting the first phase 1 clinical trial of a magnetic, flexible endoscope that has the potential to provide a safer alternative to standard colonoscopy, particularly for individuals with inflammatory bowel disease. Source: Nashville Medical News

Navigating the labyrinthine vasculature of the brain with standard surgical instruments can be incredibly challenging, even for the steadiest of hands. But with some robotic assistance, brain surgeons could potentially operate with far greater ease.

Researchers built a motor that could operate a robotic device made from non-magnetic materials and was powered by the magnetic field produced by the MRI.

NIBIB-funded researchers are developing an autonomous robot that can perform bowel surgery with minimal assistance from a surgeon. In preclinical models, the robot outperformed expert surgeons when compared head-to-head.

A robot has performed laparoscopic surgery on the soft tissue of a pig without the guiding hand of a human—a significant step toward fully automated surgery on humans. Designed by a team of Johns Hopkins University researchers, the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot, or STAR. Source: ed today in Science Robotics.

In Made of Stronger Stuff, psychologist Kimberley Wilson and doctor Xand van Tulleken learn how Jason became the first person in the world with a neural enabled prosthetic hand, and as a result, regained the sensation of touch in his fingers. Source: BBC Radio Podcast.

A new technique funded by NIBIB and developed by University of Minnesota researchers allows 3D printing of hydrogel-based sensors directly on the surface of organs, such as lungs—even as they expand and contract. The technology was developed to support robot-assisted medical treatments.

A new $2.3 million grant from the NIBIB at NIH will support a research effort led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to make a virtual surgery scenario – and others like it – a reality.

Read more at Mirage News.