Dexterous Miniature In Vivo Surgical Robot for Long Duration Space Flight

摘要

Long duration human space exploration will require the capabilities to perform surgery in emergency situations. Robotic and telerobotic surgical capabilities may be of significant use in improving medical care in remote and harsh environments, such as space, where minimally invasive surgery (MIS) can significantly reduce surgical risk. Surgical robots developed for MIS, while successful in the operating room, remain large, expensive, and require significant support personnel making them ineffectual in space exploration. In vivo surgical robots that function entirely inside the patient, have been shown to be effective as assistants in MIS, but were previously unable to perform surgical interventions. This paper presents a dexterous in vivo surgical robot that possesses the potential to perform teleoperated minimally invasive procedures. This potential is well suited for space exploration as the in vivo approach limits the size of the robot as compared to existing surgical robotic technology.