Researchers operate on human body with soft robot for first time

King's College London Monday announced that a team of roboticists, engineers and surgeons at the college have for the first time operated on a human body using a soft surgical robot as part of keyhole surgery.

Under the guidance of expert surgeons, the team used the robot to operate on human cadavers as well as medical manikins, according to a press release from King's College London (KCL).

Surgeons today rely on conventional surgical robots based on structures made from rigid components which only move in straight lines, consequently giving access to a limited number of sites.

Taking inspiration from soft-bodied animals, the team created robotic devices specifically for minimally invasive surgery, opening up areas previously inaccessible to surgeons using current keyhole surgery techniques.

Made from two segments of silicone material, the new surgical robot is equipped with three air chambers per segment allowing elongation and bending in all directions, according to KCL. It thus mimics an octopus' ability to move its tentacles, enabling the robot to squeeze through narrow openings and past delicate organs without damaging them.

The robot allows surgeons to investigate and explore many more of the narrow tunnel-like structures within the body, and it can also be fitted with surgical tools such as grippers or cutters to make it a fully functional surgical tool, according to KCL.

This new robot "is the answer and we look forward to taking soft robotics beyond surgical robotics into other areas such as repairing underwater pipelines or search and rescue operations," said Kaspar Althoefer, a Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at KCL and the lead researcher of the project. Enditem