Robotic surgery at Imperial College London

The paper presents an review of the special purpose robot surgery projects currently at Imperial College London, Robotics Centre. These include: extensions to the prostate robot system (first tried clinically in April, 1991 and up to now applied to 5 patients) which have resulted in a new Science Engineering Research Council funding initiative; knee surgery project (funded by a London Hospital) for a robotic device to machine the bones of knees or prosthetic implants; a passive manipulator arm with electromagnetic brakes which is used for kidney biopsy in conjunction with a specially adapted `C´ arm X-ray machine that can give 3D quantitative measurements