YOKOHAMA, Japan—Sony Group Corporation has unveiled a prototype of its microsurgery assistance robot, marking the company's entry into the surgical robotics market.
The announcement at the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2024) in Yokohama, Japan, highlights Sony's efforts to address the increasing demand for advanced medical services in the context of a shrinking medical workforce.
The prototype incorporates several innovative features, including an automatic surgical instrument exchange system that has been achieved by miniaturizing proprietary surgical instruments.
This development is designed to minimize surgical interruptions and delays, which are common challenges with conventional surgical assistant robots.
Moreover, the robot's susceptible control device, coupled with compact, multi-jointed surgical instruments, enables stable and high-precision control, closely resembling the delicate movements of human fingertips and wrists.
Furthermore, the prototype incorporates high-definition 4K imaging technology, utilizing Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation's 1.3-type 4K OLED microdisplays to provide visual support for precision operations.
In a groundbreaking experiment conducted at Aichi Medical University in February 2024, surgeons successfully utilized Sony's prototype to create an anastomosis in animal blood vessels with a diameter of approximately 0.6 mm.
This represents the inaugural instance of microvascular anastomosis being conducted via a surgical assistance robot with an automatic instrument exchange function.
In the future, Sony plans to collaborate with university medical departments and institutions to refine and validate the effectiveness of its robotic surgical assistance technology.
