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机器人无疑是当今的一大技术热点，在这个小小的没有生命的物体上面可以把人类目前所有的高科技用上，并满足人人拥有“仆人”的愿望。日本人在这方面投入不少，制造了不少小猫小狗的东西，玩玩倒是可以的，不过一般小孩子的好奇心持续不了多久，没多久这些小猫小狗就倒在了某个无人问津的角落了。用处比较大的是还能够自己找电源插座的吸尘器，除此之外就没有看到几个可用的产品，这些仅有的产品现在还不能称之外“机器人”，不过到时候了，相信人们会制造更多智能化的服务生让自己变得更懒。
在工业界展开研究的同时，学生之间也掀起了机器人的热潮，LEGO出了一堆的图书教导人们如何用他们的产品设计出各种装置，并构建了一个机器人社区。
中国各大高校的学生也踊跃地参加机器人设计大赛，与非网也会高度关注机器人技术的发展，并将开辟一个机器人技术社区。
机器人的原理其实是很简单的：传感器+控制器+执行机构+算法+网络。你会发现身边有很多这样的小东西，虽然他们还称不上机器人。
With Mini in vivo Robots, Anyone Can do Surgery
Two in vivo camera robots used by the Aquanauts during the NEEMO mission. Image credit: Rentschler, et al. ?IEEE 2008.
By attaching a millimeter-sized camera robot to a tether, scientistshave designed a way to allow individuals with non-medical backgroundsto perform minimally invasive surgery in almost any location. Unlikeroom-size and expensive surgical robots, mini in vivo robots are inexpensive and mobile enough to support emergency surgeries almost anywhere, from the battlefield to outer space.
The University of Nebraskaresearchers hope that the inexpensive version of the da Vinci surgicalrobot system will make the advantages of robotic-assisted surgery morewidely available, and open the doors for telesurgeries that werepreviously impossible. In a recent study, the team evaluated the easeof use and time required to perform simple abdominal surgeries with thein vivo camera robots. Their results are published in a recent issue ofIEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine.
“A new area of surgicalrobotics focuses on placing robots entirely inside the patient,” wroteMark Rentschler et al. in their study. “In vivorobots are small, inexpensive, and easily transported, making it morelikely that this technology can be more widely adopted. . . . The useof these robots can potentially reduce patient trauma in traditionalmedical centers, while the size of the robots makes them ideal fortransportation to and use in remote or harsh environments.”
The researchers tested the mini robots on three NASA astronauts andone surgeon who were undergoing long-term training in an underwaterhabitat called the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO),located 20 meters underwater off the coast of Key Largo, Florida. Thefour “Aquanauts” received brief training on how to perform twosurgeries – bowel inspection and stretch-and-dissect – and were alsoevaluated on how well they could perform another surgery – anappendectomy – for which they received no training.
In the test, the Aquanautsperformed the surgeries on synthetic materials inside an abdominalcavity simulator, and were telementored via videoconferencing by theUniversity of Nebraska team in Omaha. The crew used two robots: one was20 mm in diameter and 110 mm in length, and the other was 15 mm indiameter and 60 mm in length. Both robots were equipped with a CMOScamera and inserted into the abdominal cavity (which measures 20 x 15 x8 cm when artificially inflated) through a trocar port. Controlling therobots with either a joystick or a switch, the crew members could seevarious angles and adjust the focus of the images, receiving feedbackat 30 frames per second.
The crew members also performed the same surgeries using a standardlaparoscope – a tube that’s inserted into the body in which a cameracan be used. The results showed that the crew members achieved aboutequal levels of accuracy with both systems, but the camera robotsenabled the crew members to work significantly faster at all threesurgeries. Performing surgeries quicker could minimize patient traumaand the risk of infection.
Another notable result was that the crew members were able tosuccessfully perform the appendectomy, even though they had not beentrained on that procedure. This successdemonstrates that telementoring can be used to enable individualstrained on basic skills to build upon their skills to complete morecomplex procedures.
“The telementoring results demonstrated that nonsurgeons havingbeen trained with a specified skill set can be telementored to build onthat skill set and perform a more complex laparoscopic procedure usingin vivo robots,” the researcher concluded. “The combined results ofthese tests suggest that the use of miniature surgical robots could beused in place of standard laparoscopic surgical equipment without lossof performance.”
In the future, the team hopes to add further developments to the mini in vivorobot system, such as task assistance (where the robot can be used tomanipulate tissue), telecontrol (where the robot is controlledremotely) and some autonomy (where the robot can make some decisions onits own). Thanks to these tiny robots, emergency surgery may one day beperformed in extreme environments, and save lives where it wouldotherwise be impossible.
更多的信息: Rentschler, Mark E., Platt, Stephen R.,Berg, Kyle, Dumpert, Jason, Oleynikov, Dmitry, and Farritor, Shane M.“Miniature in vivo Robots for Remote and Harsh Environments.” IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, Vol. 12, No. 1, January 2008. |
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