Health & Medicine
Frog-Like Robot Could Help Surgeons With Slippery Surgeries
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Apr 18, 2013 09:30 AM EDT
A little robot frog may be able to lend a hand during some surgical procedures.
According to researchers at the University of Leeds, using the feet of tree frogs, a tiny robot designed to crawl inside patients' bodies during keyhole surgery could make a tremendous difference.
This miniature device is one of a growing stable of bio-inspired robots that have been built at the University's School of Mechanical Engineering.
It's designed to move across the internal abdominal wall of a patient that allows surgeons to see what they are doing on a real-time video feed.
As for the purpose of using a tree frog? His feet help hold onto wet, slippery tissue when it is vertical or upside down, and though it can be relatively easy to grip these same tissues using various instruments, this new technology could make it less likely that a patient is harmed.
Lead researcher Professor Anne Neville of the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies at the University of Leeds agreed that this new technology could make some great strides. "Tree frogs have hexagonal patterned channels on their feet that when in contact with a wet surface build capillary bridges, and hence an adhesion force . It is the same kind of idea as a beer glass sticking to a beer mat, but the patterns build a large number of adhesion points that allow our robot to move around on a very slippery surface when it is upside down.
"To work effectively, this robot will have to move to all areas of the abdominal wall, turn and stop under control, and stay stable enough to take good quality images for the surgeons to work with.
"While basic capillary action works to an extent, the adhesion fails as soon as there is movement, so we have looked at the tiny mechanisms used in nature. It is only if you look at the scale of a thousandth of a millimetre, that you can get enough adhesion to give the robust attachment we need."
The frog-inspired robot has four feet -- each capable of holding a maximum of about 15 grams for each square centimetre in contact with a slippery surface. The researchers are aiming for a device that is 20×20×20mm, though they have been working on a prototype that is near double this size.
According to reports, researchers are now trying to lower the size of their prototype so that it may fit through the incisions made during keyhole surgery. The prototype's weight is currently of the order of 20g and can be reduced much further.
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First Posted: Apr 18, 2013 09:30 AM EDT
A little robot frog may be able to lend a hand during some surgical procedures.
According to researchers at the University of Leeds, using the feet of tree frogs, a tiny robot designed to crawl inside patients' bodies during keyhole surgery could make a tremendous difference.
This miniature device is one of a growing stable of bio-inspired robots that have been built at the University's School of Mechanical Engineering.
It's designed to move across the internal abdominal wall of a patient that allows surgeons to see what they are doing on a real-time video feed.
As for the purpose of using a tree frog? His feet help hold onto wet, slippery tissue when it is vertical or upside down, and though it can be relatively easy to grip these same tissues using various instruments, this new technology could make it less likely that a patient is harmed.
Lead researcher Professor Anne Neville of the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies at the University of Leeds agreed that this new technology could make some great strides. "Tree frogs have hexagonal patterned channels on their feet that when in contact with a wet surface build capillary bridges, and hence an adhesion force . It is the same kind of idea as a beer glass sticking to a beer mat, but the patterns build a large number of adhesion points that allow our robot to move around on a very slippery surface when it is upside down.
"To work effectively, this robot will have to move to all areas of the abdominal wall, turn and stop under control, and stay stable enough to take good quality images for the surgeons to work with.
"While basic capillary action works to an extent, the adhesion fails as soon as there is movement, so we have looked at the tiny mechanisms used in nature. It is only if you look at the scale of a thousandth of a millimetre, that you can get enough adhesion to give the robust attachment we need."
The frog-inspired robot has four feet -- each capable of holding a maximum of about 15 grams for each square centimetre in contact with a slippery surface. The researchers are aiming for a device that is 20×20×20mm, though they have been working on a prototype that is near double this size.
According to reports, researchers are now trying to lower the size of their prototype so that it may fit through the incisions made during keyhole surgery. The prototype's weight is currently of the order of 20g and can be reduced much further.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone