* Photo: Sian Kennedy * Nobody wants to have surgery on a battlefield; the idea of having it performed by a robot spider probably doesn't make it sound any less harrowing. But as far as Peter Berkelman is concerned, a robot is better than nothing. A roboticist at the University of Hawaii, Berkelman studies haptics, the science of simulating touch and feel. "Force feedback is just fascinating to me," Berkelman says, teeing up a pun. "I like to work on technologies that offer resistance."
One of those resistant technologies is robot-assisted surgery. Robots are good at precise, less-invasive work and can be controlled remotely, but high-end surgery droids can cost upwards of $1 million, take up half an operating room, and require an hour to boot up and sterilize. Berkelman's version may not be able to handle the same level of fine detail, but it's good enough—and it's built from mostly off-the-shelf parts for just $75,000. His unnamed prototype fits in a backpack, which means a medic could actually carry it into battle and clamp it onto a gurney at a triage station. And it's small enough to be sterilized in a normal hospital autoclave. "You probably won't see it used for open-heart surgeries," Berkelman says. "But for simpler procedures—like removing shrapnel—it could be very cost-effective."
Two of the robot's articulated arms can take tool attachments like scalpels or cautery pens. The third holds an endoscope—usually a job for a human nurse. Berkelman says his robot is ready for testing on human cadavers; he might move to live human subjects next year. "We'd rather work on dead people first," Berkelman says. "It's a bit safer."
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