Robotics for surgery

Abstract

This paper discusses the main characteristics and applications of Robotics In surgery. Surgical robotic devices are classified as: (1) large, high-precision robots (image-guided, autonomous or teleoperated); (2) hand-held smart medical tools; (3) miniature endoscopic robots. Special attention is devoted to robots for minimally invasive surgery which are particularly promising and technically challenging as they require integrated design, on-board sensing and actuation, power supply and some degree of autonomy.