Eye see you're having surgery: Origami inspires tiny, super-accurate robot surgeon

Researchers have built a 2.4g robot that could be capable of eye surgery, inspired by the ancient paper-folding art of origami. A paper published in Nature Machine Intelligence describes how the machine was able to trace a square of 0.5mm by 0.5mm and reduced the deviation from the desired trajectory by 68 per cent compared to …

[carolinahomes]

A little redundant

Saying:

"was able to trace a square of 0.5mm by 0.5mm"

is plainly redundant.

How about:

"was able to trace a 0.5 mm square"?

Sign me up when it gets better than Lasek! I've been leery of the complications that arise with current methods.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: A little redundant

Definitely redundant. But I wonder why it doesn't mention depth.

But as far as Lasik (not Lasek), this is designed for different applications, probably cataract surgery which Lasik lasers can't handle.

[carolinahomes]

Re: A little redundant

I'm more of a candidate for Lasek, and yes, there is also Lasik. Thanks for clarifying the usage parameters of this robotic device, hopefully in time they'll be able to expand its usage. Be safe everyone!

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

other research groups have developed more precise robots

But how big.

An engineers approach to more precise is to make it bigger and more rigid, which makes it bigger and heaver, so to make it more rigid it has to be bigger and heavier... until you end up with a wafer stepper or a CNC machine.

Making something small and flexible means it can be faster to respond and just as accurate, if you get the control loop correct

[Dave 126]

Re: other research groups have developed more precise robots

You're right, even on contact probes mounted on big CNC machines, the software takes account the of how the carbon fibre probe rod deforms due to its own mass (a known quantity) under acceleration (again, known), and compensates accordingly. This allows the proving to be done faster for the same accuracy.

More rigid ceramic probe rods are also offered as an option.

[IGotOut]

Old hat

"Researchers have built a 2.4g robot".

I thought 5g was cutting edge.

Sorry.

[Anonymous Coward]

dimentional cable 2

Dr: "scalpel"

Nurse: "scalpel"

Dr: "mini-surgeon"

Nurse: "mini-surgeon"

Mini-surgeon: "mini-scalpel"

[Little Mouse]

Tiny Terminators.

An army of scalpel-wielding mini robots programmed to slice up human eyes?

Euugh.

[Dr_N]

I've seen Logan's Run

No thanks.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's all sounds very good, but what is the tiny surgeon's golf handicap??

The American College of Surgeons was asking.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: That's all sounds very good, but what is the tiny surgeon's golf handicap??

Probably that it is 20x smaller than the ball ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Good

Having had several operations, on both eyes, by humans -- albeit very skilled human surgeons -- and all the concomitant surgical woes, this would be wonderful.

[David 132]

Re: Good

There is, as always, a relevant XKCD.