A telerobotic assistant for laparoscopic surgery

The goal of the work described is to develop a new generation of “intelligent” surgical systems that can work cooperatively with a human surgeon to off-load routine tasks, reduce the number of people needed in the operating room, and provide new capabilities that complement the surgeon´s own skills. An underlying premise of this work is that machine capabilities coupled with human judgement can accomplish many tasks better than either could do alone. A further premise is that such a partnership is synergistic with present trends toward geometrically precise, image guided, and minimally invasive therapies. The net result will be better clinical results, lower net costs through shorter hospital stays and recovery times, and reducing the chances for repeated surgery