# Topics > Medical robotics and AI > Robotic surgery, computer-assisted surgery >  A wrist for needle-sized surgical robots, Medical Engineering and Discovery Lab, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

## Airicist

Developer - Medical Engineering and Discovery Lab

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## Airicist

Tiny mechanical wrist gives new dexterity to needlescopic surgery

Published on Jul 23, 2015




> With the flick of a tiny mechanical wrist, a team of engineers and doctors at Vanderbilt University’s Medical Engineering and Discovery Laboratory hope to give needlescopic surgery a whole new degree of dexterity.
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> Needlescopic surgery, which uses surgical instruments shrunk to sinvasive surgery. The needle-sized incisions it requires are so small that they can be sealed with surgical tape and usually heal without leaving a scar.
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> A research team headed by Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Robert Webster has developed a surgical robot with steerable needles equipped with wrists that are less than 1/16th of an inch (2 mm) thick. The achievement is described in a paper titled “A wrist for needle-sized surgical robots” presented last month at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Seattle.
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> The new device is designed to provide needlescopic tools with a degree of dexterity that they have previously lacked. Not only will this allow surgeon-operators to perform a number of procedures such as precise resections and suturing that haven’t been possible before, but it will also allow the use of needles in places that have been beyond its reach, such as the nose, throat, ears and brain.
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> “The smaller you can make surgical instruments the better...as long as you can maintain an adequate degree of dexterity,” said Professor of Urological Surgery S. Duke Herrell who is consulting on the project. “In my experience, the smaller the instruments, the less post-operative pain patients experience and the faster they recover.” 
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## Airicist

A needle-sized bendable wrist with gripper

Published on Jul 23, 2015




> For the last six years, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Robert Webster and his colleagues have been developing a surgical robot that uses “steerable needles.” This is a system of telescoping tubes that are made out of nitinol, a “memory metal” that retains it shape. Each tube has a different intrinsic curvature. By precisely rotating, extending and retracting the tubes, an operator can steer the tip in different directions, allowing it to follow a curving path through the body.

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## Airicist

Article "Tiny surgical robot can bend and operate on hard-to-reach areas"

by Mariella Moon 
July 26, 2015

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## Airicist

Article "SSS-SURGERY! Snake-like robot that can travel through the body to be used in operations"
Researchers have developed a ‘robot snake’ which can be used to travel to tricky places during surgery.

by Sean Martin
November 2, 2016

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## Airicist

A bone attached robot for inner ear surgery

Published on Sep 28, 2017

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