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Pediatric surgical robot inspired by ISS remote manipulator arm
Robots and space technology may soon be saving children's lives thanks to KidsArm, a robotic arm designed for delicate pediatric surgery (Photo: MDA and CIGITI)
The technology that built (and continues to maintain) the International Space Station can now be used to help heal sick children. KidsArm, a robotic arm designed for delicate pediatric surgery, was built by the same companies that are behind the robotic arms used by astronauts to construct the ISS.
"Our tests indicate we can operate on tiny structures such as blood vessels without damaging them," says Thomas Looi, the program director of the Center for Image Guided Innovation and Therapeutic Intervention at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Canada, where KidsArm is being tested.
"The goal of the robotic arm is to help doctors perform certain procedures many times faster than if they were only using their hands, and with increased accuracy," he continues. "Some of this would be done autonomously. While we are not quite there yet, KidsArm is able to perform three to five suture points autonomously."
KidsArm offers surgeons high-precision real-time imaging and control in specialty procedures such as cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, fetal surgery, and other delicate operations. It has a stereo camera that generates a 3D point cloud. "This is a set of data points that guide the tool tip and apply a series of sutures," Looi explains.
And it uses an image-based tissue-tracking system that draws on the technology behind space robots Canadarm, Canadarm2, and Dextre – all of which had (and still have) a hand in assembling the ISS and in supporting maintenance work.
KidsArm also consists of an external positioning system with an industrial robot of similar scale to a human arm. This external arm is attached to the surgical arm, which is designed to be as small as possible while retaining the necessary dexterity for positioning and deploying the sutures.
It's still in testing at a SickKids research environment, with an academic paper on the technology conceding that KidsArm had some difficulty with one of its test scenarios (while it passed the others with flying colors), and the CIGITI team is exploring ways to further evolve the concept of robotic pediatric surgery. But this collaboration has got neurosurgery chief Dr. James Drake excited about the potential for space technologies created by the likes of Canadian company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) to enable "the next big leap in less invasive treatment."
KidsArm has the potential to reduce costs and allow earlier, more consistent, and more precise interventions in patients, the CIGITI team suggests, much as the NeuroArm did following its groundbreaking surgery inside an MRI scanner in 2008.
"There are so many ways that station science and technology has and will continue to touch our daily lives," says Gilles Leclerc, director general of Space Exploration at the Canadian Space Agency. "Those of us who work in the space station program are very proud to be making a difference here on Earth."
Source: NASA
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/kidsarm-surgical-robot/33494/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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