Robots in Medicine: Past, Present and Future

2.1. Passive Robots

These are the robots actuated by human operator (Smith-Guerin et al., 2008). The information about the position of the tool relative to the pre-planned data is displayed to the surgeon. The execution of the surgical action is completely performed by the surgeon (Mosges et al., 1989; Lavallee et al., 1994). Dynamic walking robot and AESOP endoscopic positioner are examples for passive robots (Smith-Guerin et al., 2008; Collins et al., 2001).

Automated Endoscopic System for Optimal Positioning (AESOP) represented in Figure 2 is a voice controlled robot which is used to position an endoscope (Stoianovici, 2000). It was developed by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Computer Motion Inc. in 1989 and received FDA clearance in 1994 (Hockstein et al., 2007; Unger et al., 1994). It consists of motorized joints where the surgeon controls it with foot and hand (Kavoussi et al., 1994). It also consists of Hermes Voice-activation to control it with few simple voice commands (Ballantyne, 2002). It does not perform any invasive manipulation rather it is used only for endoscopy purpose (Camarillo et al., 2004).

Figure 2.

AESOP endoscopic positioner (Source: Computer Motion Inc.)