Robotics: from Surgery to Scouting

摘要

A surgeon scrutinizes a three-dimensional real-time representation of her patient's knee on a video screen. She decides which diseased areas need to be excised, and exactly where the robotic arm should be positioned to remove tissue and resurface the knee. Then she manipulates the arm to carry out the surgery, with significantly greater precision than any surgeon would be able to accomplish on her own. This robotic knee surgery is the brainchild of Mako Surgical Corporation, a Ft. Lauder-dale, FL-based medical device company. It's one of many advances in robotics that companies and research institutions in Florida are making in areas that include the life sciences and defense industries. Many industries, including makers of Pharmaceuticals and medical devices, now utilize robots.