Tropes

R_news.discovery.com 2015 01094.txt.txt

#Artificial Octopus Arm Performs Surgery About 10 years ago, the Pentagon funded a science project to build an entire eight-armed artificial octopus, capable of squeezing, holding and grabbing objects with soft, flexible arms just like a real one. Engineers and biologists from several nations teamed up to build different parts, but for various reasons the robo-pus (octo-bot?)never really got off the ground. Now, however, researchers associated with the original project have come up with something a lot more practical: a single octo-robo-arm that can lift and hold organs without damaging them. Designers of the new 2-inch long squishy, but strong, device say it eventually will be able to inch itself into the body during surgery and help physicians detect trouble and zap tissue without using metal probes that can often damage body parts. Robo-Raptors Look And Fly Like Real Birds here have been other robotic arms and there have been other systems that are said soft Tomasso Ranzani, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard university and formerly at the Scuola Superiore Santnna Biorobotics Institute. ut they haven been application specific. In this case we tried to get inspiration from the octopus and put it in the surgeon suite. Ranzani is lead author on a new study on the project appearing today in the journal Biomimetics and Bioinspiration. hen it is reaching in the underwater environment, the octopus uses a flexible structure. Then when he needs to grasp something, he creates a elbow and a wrist to catch the thing, Ranzani said. ith our device, when it stiffens, it can stabilize organs or perform the same surgery with a smaller entrance. The device, developed by a consortium of European universities including King's college, London, is made of two cylindrical chambers of silicon elastomers that extend and bend. Each cylinder contains a sack of granular material embedded in a flexible membrane that is also packed in a vacuum. Ranzani describes it like a sack of vaccuum-packed coffee beans that are packed strong when together but soft when poured out individually. Using pneumatic controls, the researchers practiced lifting and bending the arm around water-filled balloons to simulate human organs. Robot Rides Hoverbike, Nuff Said While the Italian researchersdevice is several years from commercial development, other firms are moving forward with other types of flexible-but-stiff arms for various uses. OCROBOTICS, based in the U k.,has developed the Jetsnake and Petrobot--both large metallic arms designed to inspect industrial settings like nuclear facilities. Hansen Medical in Mountain view, Calif.,has the Magellan catheter a thin device for exploring the human body without damaging tissue. Ian Walker, a bioroboticist at Clemson University, has been working with NASA to develop a flexible snake or octopus-like device to help explore caves and crevasses on the moon or Mars. He says the next generation of devices will have specific applications, and the new study is a step in the right direction toward a commercial device. hat has made all of this happen is an interest in biology on the part of engineers, Walker said. oing basic science has led to technological innovations that are allowing us to write a paper as a community and saying that here is something we can build for surgery. i

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