“The goal of the project is to use our snake robot to facilitate dexterous bladder cancer tumor investigations transurethrally. “We’re expected to go into studies over the next couple of months,” he said. Next up? Entering through the urethra to help treat bladder cancer. For example, entering through the nose - therefore bypassing the gag reflex - Simaan’s flexible snake robots could carry out vocal cord operations without requiring major surgery and full anesthesia. The research means that some otherwise arduous operations could be made into more straightforward outpatient procedures. The surgeon feeds them into the nose but they then sense their surroundings and feel their way.” “What’s special about these robots is that they can sense their way in and participate in carrying out the procedure with the surgeon - so that the surgeon doesn’t have to manually steer them into place. The global medical robotics market was valued at 16.1 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at an annual compound growth rate of 17.4 percent by 2030. “Recently, we’ve been working on a snake robot that can enter the body through the nose and then drop down into the upper airway for microsurgery,” Simaan said. Using sensor-based intelligence, these flexible robots represent an exciting development: opening up possibilities, if not patients. ![]() ![]() “We’ve found that these robots have the ideal shape because they allow us to circumvent anatomical obstacles, and mean that you’re no longer limited to accessing the body using a wrist-on-a-stick - which is currently the state-of-the-art in robotic surgery,” Simaan told Digital Trends.
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