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ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENGE
UNIT-1 ASSIGNMENT
SNAKE ROBOTS

NAME : PREETHIKA.S
DEPT

: CSE

YEAR

: III-YR

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SNAKE ROBOTS
Snakes and bladders: UK-developed robots are helping realise the scar-free
potential of natural orifice surgery
Of all the areas where engineering and technology is affecting medicine, surgery is
probably the one where it has the potential to make the biggest changes. New
imaging techniques and improved instruments help surgeons to identify the regions
where they must operate and assist their intricate work.
Robot surgeons, although poorly named, are at the forefront of one of the biggest
technology-led changes. Rather than carrying out surgery without human
intervention, as the name implies, they are remotely operated devices that allow
surgeons to work through small incisions, rather than the large holes needed in
conventional surgery for surgeons to see what they are doing. This reduces the size
of wounds and therefore scarring, and reduces the time needed for recovery.

One particularly striking form of remote surgery promises the possibility of doing
away with scars altogether. Known as NOTES (Natural Orifice Transluminal
Endoscopic Surgery), the technique takes advantage of the holes that are already in
the body as access points for surgery. Rather than making an incision in the outside
of the body, the surgeon goes in via the mouth, rectum or vagina, makes an incision

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through the wall of the orifice (this is the transluminal part of the acronym) and
then burrows through to reach the target organ. The result is no visible scar and no
incision-related complications.

Pliability is essential to protect the delicate internals of the body

upon insertion
But theres no way this can be done without robotic assistance. While endoscopes are
now commonly used to see inside the body via natural orifices, they dont have the
mobility necessary to navigate as precisely as NOTES requires, and their mechanical
structure, although fine for mounting a passive camera on to, isnt suitable as a
mount for surgical instruments; these need to be mounted on a firm platform, which
doesnt move when the instruments press against or cut into tissues.
The first NOTES procedures were carried out in 2007 and the technique has been
developed around the world, with appendixes, kidneys and gallbladders being
removed. To date, NOTES operations have used conventional, although adapted,
endoscopes, and have had some success: in the UK, the technique has been used for
gallbladder surgery on female patients. However, to develop the technique further,
dedicated instruments are needed; in particular, the robot that takes the instruments
inside the body.
Two UK teams are currently working on robots for NOTES. At Imperial College
London, a team from the departments of surgery, computing and biomedical
engineering, funded by the Wellcome Trust, is working on iSnake, a combined
surgical robot and imaging device. Meanwhile, Bristol-based OC Robotics is
developing its snake-arm robots, which are used as remote manipulators in
hazardous areas, to work within the human body, aided by a grant from the
Technology Strategy Board.

Neither machine is, in any way, a robot surgeon. They are hollow tubes into
which surgeons can insert surgical tools to perform surgery. However, they
form a vital, automated link to the outside world, providing the surgical team
with access to their target organs from inside the body and forming a shield to
protect the tissues through which they pass from damage.
iSnake stands for imaging sensor navigated and kinematically enhanced, explained
Prof Guang-Hong Yang of the mechatronics laboratory of Imperial Colleges Hamlyn
Centre. We use imaging and sensing so that it can view the tissue its touching and
can see where its going.
The device is a self-propelled articulated robot, about a centimetre wide and from
20-60cm long, depending on the operation it is used for. Its control system allows
the operator to manipulate all of its joints simultaneously, taking the instrumentcarrying head of the robot where it needs to go without having to worry about the
rest of the robot behind it. We dont want to make the whole thing automatic, said
medical robotics engineer Valentina Vitellio.

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However, while the surgeon is carrying out the procedure, we need to make sure
that the rest of the articulated body is not causing tissue damage.
To do this, the robot has a pre-set limited workspace - an area within which it can
work safely, but cannot move outside. This can be reset during the operation, to
guide its movements and control the amount of force it can exert on the tissues it is
touching.
The iSnake team, with its sensor-equipped, custom-designed robot, believes it can
develop systems capable of carrying out complex multi-chamber coronary bypass
operations and exploring the nooks and crannies of the alimentary system.
For OC Robotics, remote operation using a flexible tubular robot is its bread and
butter: it has 10 years of experience in designing snake-arm robots for hazardous
environments. But however constrained and dangerous, the designed, engineered,
hard-surfaced environment of a nuclear power reactor is very different from the
squishy, constantly collapsing and perilously delicate interior of the human body.

The robot has a pre-set limited workspace - an area within which it

can work safely, but cannot move outside
The robot that OC Robotics is developing uses identical technology to its
existing snake-arm robots: the links along its flexible body are cable-actuated,
with all the motors and electronics located outside the arm. This allows it to
work in two modes: flexible, for insertion, but stiff and steerable, so that the
surgeon has a stable platform from which to work once the snakes head has
reached its target. Pliability is essential to protect the delicate internals of the
body upon insertion, but rigidity is required to rea OC has also developed a
simulated human-body environment, for virtual operation of a simulated snake
arm. It is developing the technology so that internal organs from virtually
anywhere within the body can be removed via the mouth; currently, the
technique is used most often transvaginally, but obviously this is only suitable
for half of the potential patients.
For OC Robotics chief Rob Buckingham, the development is at a very early stage.
Surgery is perhaps the largest market for robots that can operate in confined
spaces, and probably the most complex; that is, it needs consensus and
development, he told The Engineer.
However, he believes that OCs experience in the area gives the company a head
start. What the surgeons need is adequately mature technology in order to collect
data and make the case for the technique, based on patient outcomes and cost
savings.

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