How Are Medical Robots Used?

Imagine a surgeon who can perform surgery with extreme precision, smaller incisions, decreased blood loss, less pain, and quicker healing time. That is one of the primary roles of robotics in modern medicine. Although technically considered to be teleoperated devices robotic surgical system such as the da Vinci and Zeus surgical systems are proving to be an invaluable tool for surgeons. Robotic surgical systems utilize the same technology that an autonomous robot would employ for motion control, imaging and tactile feedback while remaining under the control of a human surgeon.

Robotic surgery or robotic-assisted surgery allows the surgeon to perform surgery using a computer to control tiny surgical instruments remotely. When compared to traditional open and laparoscopic surgery, robotic instruments can perform task in hard to reach locations inside the human body through smaller incisions with minimal trauma.

Robotics can increase precision by helping eliminate hand trimmers and other involuntary movements that could influence the precision of the surgeon. Cardiac surgeons, for example, have found that they can meet or exceed the level of precision achieved through conventional methods of open-heart surgery without having to split the breastbone.

Although not the classic robot as we might picture it robotic instruments play a major role in diagnosis. The CAT scan is one diagnostic robot that most of us are familiar with. Robotic laboratory equipment reduces the risk of human error by analyzing blood and tissue samples for diagnostic purposes. Their automated techniques provide consistency and accuracy helping to eliminate miss-diagnosis.

There is ongoing research into robotic replacement hearts, limbs, eyes, ears and other organs. The greatest challenge facing researchers in robotic organs is the body’s natural immune response to foreign objects. They must also develop ways to prevent dangerous chemical interactions between the robotic organ and organic tissue.

For those who have suffered a stroke, brain or nerve damage robotic exercise platforms can be used to improve limb function while monitoring their condition during rehabilitation.

Reboots are used in the production of medications; here they provide invaluable assistance by protecting the human workers from dangerous chemicals and accidental drug exposure. The use of robotics also helps protect the medication from human transmitted contaminates while providing consistency in the manufacturing process.

Although not necessarily considered medical robots, search and rescue robots are beginning to play an important role in protecting first responders. Rescue and flight robots can provide reconnaissance in areas that may be too dangerous for human rescue workers. Just a couple of the practical uses for flight and rescue robots are high rise structural fires and accidents involving hazardous materials. There is also ongoing research and development of rescue robots that are capable of physically removing an injured person from a hazardous situation and transporting them to the first responders.

An overview of Thomas Young's contributions to the fields of vision and light

Thomas Young was best known as a physician and physicist with a strong interest in sensory perception however he was a man of many interests.  Not only was he a gifted scientist and physician he was also fluent in several languages and studied Egyptology. In 1814 he began to study the Rosetta stone and went on to help translate the language of the ancient Egyptians.

Young made his first notable discovery while still in medical school when he found that the lens of the eye changes shape as it focuses on objects at varies distances. He went on to discover the cause of astigmatism in 1801.

Thomas Young and Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz developed what would become known as the Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory.  This theory speculated that there were three types of cones in the human retina, which receive color stimulus and transmit it to the brain.  According to their theory each of the three types of cones are sensitive to one of three colors, red, green, or blue. Today our best understanding of the cones is that there are between 6 and 7 million with 64% being sensitive to red, 32% to green and 2% to blue.

Young began his experiments into the phenomenon known as interference in 1801 and this led to his wave theory of light. By splitting a beam of light from a single source and then recombining it he noticed that the light produced dark and light fringes. He concluded that the fringes were the result of the light acting as a wave with the peaks and troughs reinforcing or cancelling out one another.

English scientist did not immediately accept Young’s theory because it defied Newton’s theory of light.  According to Newton’s theory, which was published in 1704, light was made up of particles emitted by their source. Young’s theory began to be more widely accepted after he worked with French physicists Augustin Fresnel and Francois Arago. Fresnel had also experimented with the laws of interference although he achieved little notoriety for his work in optics. He is perhaps best known for developing the compound lens that replaced mirrored lenses in lighthouses. Arago made major contributions to the study of electromagnetism and the phenomenon of magnetic rotation. Along with French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel he discovered the principles governing the polarization of light, a key discovery in establishing the theory of light as a wave.

Young is credited with giving the word energy its scientific significance; he also worked on elasticity, surface tension of liquids and measuring the size of molecules.