Medrobotic‘s Flex Robotic System is designed to give physicians the ability to access anatomical locations that were previously difficult or impossible to reach in a minimally invasive way. Because it is affordable and efficient, the Flex Robotic System allows hospitals to expand the patient population that they serve and improve the productivity of their facilities.
In an interview with Howie Choset, the lead researcher on the project, professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the largest research center of its kind in the U.S., and co-founder of Medrobotics, shared about the technology. Notably, he was previously named a “tech game changer” by the Huffington Post.
What makes the Flex Robotic System a stand out from what others are doing?
Our research team has gained notoriety with the development of our snake robots. These are good because they can fit into tightly compact spaces and get to places that people and machinery otherwise can’t access. They also inspire a lot of research questions as well as applications. One application could be using it for search and rescue in construction ruble or at nuclear power plants, which essentially would be doing minimally invasive surgery on structures. If we shrink the robot down in size we can use the same technology to do minimally invasive surgeries.
The reason why this type of snake robot would be good for surgery is because it would cause a patient less pain, it would cost less and the patient can recover more quickly. A snake robot has the benefits of a endoscope and a laproscope at the same time.
I have to acknowledge that this a collaboration – with both Marco Zenati, a cardiac surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh and now at Harvard University, and Alan Wolfe – the three of us are the co-founders of the Medrobotics.
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What sets your work apart?
Others are doing some things with robotics, incorporating small motors and using some exotic technologies, which is great, I just don’t think those technologies are ready. What we did is we figured out the kind of motors you could buy at Radio Shack to operate this small and maneuverable robot. That’s the secret sauce. This device can steer and go wherever you want.
We just figured this out randomly, which is usually how it works for me. I get lucky. We eventually realized that there was only so much we could do at a university. We met Jim Jordan from the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse. I had a vision, but its useless unless you have a medical perspective and a real marketplace. Jim Jordan gave us a lot of great advice that enabled us to start the company, and he also held our hands when we raised the first $12 million dollars.
I’d like to wave the flag for Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon has the world’s greatest robotics research center. Few places have the combination of the medical, robotics and the enterprise support. I don’t know that we could have started this company anywhere else.
Medrobotic’s technology is officially commercial?
It is currently commercial and was cleared by the FDA. The CEO of the company, Sam Straface did the real heavy work. I was the inventor, but Medrobotics team did the heavy lifting.
How has the device been used so far?
One way, for throat cancer or other neck surgeries, it can go in through the mouth, which prevents the need to break the jaw or have large incisions.
Do you see this being useful for many different types of surgeries?
It’s always tempting for an inventor to say he has created a platform technology, meaning it can do anything. So to answer your question, yes. We started off by doing some heart surgeries, but we decided to go after these larynx procedures partly because it was a good next step in our strategy, including approval from the FDA.
What’s next? Fine tuning this product or new products?
I continue to work on the snake robots, but I also have a new collaboration at Vanderbilt University and with John’s Hopkins. We are developing algorithms to improve, or dare I say restore, situational awareness in minimally invasive surgery. In other words, when you’re doing laparoscopic surgery, you’re essentially looking through a straw, more or less. Laparoscopic surgery was resisted initially because people didn’t believe you could do surgery with such a limited view.
What we are doing is developing algorithms that will restore the geometry and tactile experience for the surgery, but still with minimally invasive surgery. We are using information that you could only get from the surgical snake robot inside to create 3-dimensional models that you can play with. This work is being funded by the National Robotics Initiative.
(If you’re scared of snakes, this might be slightly terrifying. But here’s an example of what the robotic snake technology looks like in motion.)
Photo: Screenshot via Medrobotics
