Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1.8
The surgeon monitors the procedure by means of a television monitor [69]
Despite the surgeon's considerable skill and ability to work within the constraints of the
current MIS technology, the expansion of minimally invasive medical practice remains
limited by the lack of dexterity with which surgeons can operate while using current MIS
instruments.
1.13 Robotics
The field of robotics may be more practically defined as being the study, design, and use
of robot systems for manufacturing purposes. As defined by ISO, an industrial robot is
an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator programmable in
three or more axes. Typical applications of industrial robots include welding, painting,
assembly, pick and place, packaging and palletizing, product inspection, and testing, all
accomplished with never-ending endurance, speed, and precision. In the context of general
robotics, most types of robots would fall into the category of robotic arms (inherent in the
use of the word manipulator in the above-mentioned ISO standard). Degrees of autonomy
for robots are variable. Some robots are programmed to carry out specific actions repeat-
edly with a high degree of accuracy. There are other kinds of robots, however, which are
smarter and more flexible as to the orientation of the object on which they are operat-
ing, which the robot may even need to identify. Machine vision, in addition to artificial
intelligence, is becoming an increasingly important factor in modern industrial robots.
