SnakeRaven is a robot that attaches to the Raven II surgical robotic platform. This Snake-like manipulator is patient-specific and it can be designed for any anatomy. A computer optimised the design parameters of SnakeRaven in terms of how well it reaches and orients about the targets in a patient scan. This model is now a 3D printed tool for the Raven II designed to reach four targets inside a knee phantom. Publications and code for SnakeRaven are due to be released later this year.
Great use of 3D printing technology. My sister who works as a nurse has always been fascinated when I tell her about the work the ACRV does in medical robotics :).
If anyone who worked on SnakeRaven sees this, how much extra work do you reckon would be needed to get it in the hands of doctors and what sort of impact do you think it would have?
Hi David,
Great question, I think with both the SnakeRaven and Snakebot projects, there is still a significant amount of work before they can be used clinically by doctors. Getting new medical technologies, especially surgical ones, are difficult because there are major risks if they go wrong. So it would take intensive clinical trials with phantoms and cadavers before they are proven to be reliable and safe enough to be used for patients. For the Snake robots, there are some major hurdles before we could integrate it into a complete surgical robotic system for that. The ACRV medical robotics group envisions a system that not only uses the steerable snake-like robots but also uses an autonomous leg manipulator, a miniaturised stereo imaging system and a 3D/4D Ultrasound imaging system. With the integration of all these systems, I believe SnakeRaven would then be able to localise itself and perceive its environment inside the body well enough to facilitate a mock surgery.
I think if the ideas of SnakeRaven are used in an actual surgical robotic system in the future, then the impact can lead to better health outcomes, faster patient recovery time and fewer complications after the procedure.
Great answer thank you 🙂