State-of-the-art of intelligent minimally invasive surgical robots

Abstract

A number of developed countries are rapidly turning into super-aged societies. Consequently, the demand for reduced surgical invasiveness and enhanced efficiency in the medical field has increased due to the need to reduce the physical burden on older patients and shorten their recovery period. Intelligent surgical robot systems offer high precision, high safety, and reduced invasiveness. This paper presents a review of current intelligent surgical robot systems. The history of robots and three types of intelligent surgical robots are discussed. The problems with current surgical robot systems are then analyzed. Several aspects that should be considered in designing new surgical systems are discussed in detail. The paper ends with a summary of the work and a discussion of future prospects for surgical robot development.

Keywords

robot history / medical robot / surgical robot / radiofrequency ablation / organ model

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Shenzhen Robot Research Program (No. U1613221); in part by the National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2017YFC0110500); in part by the Global Centers of Excellence Program “Global Robot Academia,” Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan; and in part by the Program for Leading Graduate Schools, “Graduate Program for Embodiment Informatics” of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Masakatsu G. Fujie and Bo Zhang declare that they have no conflict of interest. This manuscript is a review article and does not involve a research protocol requiring approval by a relevant institutional review board or ethics committee.

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