The Arms race in surgical robotics - why they are so important in design choice

The arms have it

Back in 2014 when asked to go visit Cambridge Medical Robotics (the original name for CMR Surgical) I was hesitant. Very hesitant. All of my being said to just leave Intuitive to that game: as no one else could really win against them.

Over a period of weeks I was convinced to come and see CMR and the prototype they had been working on.

When I stepped into the lab up on a hill above Cambridge (gorgeous location by the way) I instantly understood that arm architecture can change everything.

In the last decade of my journey with surgical robotics, I’ve understood so much about what critical components make all the difference. Instrument and instrument design. Controllers, cockpits and the interfaces that the surgeon uses.

Imaging systems, energy systems and ecosystems.

And everything is important of course  - from the tip of the instrument that interacts with the tissue to the plug that goes into the wall to power the system. It’s all important (to a degree.)

But it’s the arms… the arms that for me are one of the three key things on a robot that matter and determine the very experience - shape - deign - ethos and philosophy about a robot. The most important.

Today we see a varied pantheon of arms. From the classic Intuitive mechanical remote centre and Z-rail design, to the V-wrist of CMR, to the suspended swivel of a RobSurgical, the micro arms of Virtual Incision, the elbowed flexible arms of the SP, and the bed mounted arms of Ottava.

The design of those arms - and how they get the instrument to where it needs to go. The design in the load delivery of the arm - does it hang from a boom or does it sit on a cart,  are they attached to a table, or even do the arms sit inside the patient.

That one design ethos changes every single aspect of the robot. And in robotic laparoscopy style operations - often with multiple arms - it really matters.

I’m not an engineer - but what I want to do here is translate some of that engineering into what then happens in the real world. And why engineers should be paying attention and thinking out of the box.

So why is the arm so important?

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