Now, robot conducts surgery on pigs successfully without any help

Robots are the future. Well, quite literally. For the first time, a robot has successfully performed keyhole surgery on pigs on its own, without the human help, said a team of US researchers.  

With the advancement in the technology, their role seems to be increasing in the world.  

According to the researchers, the robot surgeon performed “significantly better” than humans.  

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The laparoscopic surgery, which looked to connect two ends of an intestine in four pigs was carried out by Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (Star).  

The robot excelled at the procedure, which generally needs a high level of precision and repetitive movements, as per the paper published in Science Robotics.   

This development is the first time a robot has performed laparoscopic surgery without any help from mankind, said Axel Krieger, assistant professor, mechanical engineering, Johns Hopkins University.  

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“Our findings show that we can automate one of the most intricate and delicate tasks in surgery: the reconnection of two ends of an intestine. The Star performed the procedure in four animals and it produced significantly better results than humans performing the same procedure,” said Krieger.  

Krieger had helped create this robot, which has a vision-guided system designed to suture soft tissue.   

(With inputs from agencies)