Advanced Intelligent Systems for Surgical Robotics

Surgical robots have had clinical use since the mid-1990s. Robot-assisted surgeries offer many benefits over the conventional approach including lower risk of infection and blood loss, shorter recovery, and an overall safer procedure for patients. The past few decades have shown many emerging surgical robotic platforms that can work in complex and confined channels of the internal human organs and improve the cognitive and physical skills of the surgeons during the operation. Advanced technologies for sensing, actuation, and intelligent control have enabled multiple surgical devices to simultaneously operate within the human body at low cost and with more efficiency. Despite advances, current surgical intervention systems are not able to execute autonomous tasks and make cognitive decisions that are analogous to those of humans. Herein, the historical development of surgery from conventional open to robotic-assisted approaches with discussion on the capabilities of advanced intelligent systems and devices that are currently implemented in existing surgical robotic systems is reviewed. Also, available autonomous surgical platforms are comprehensively discussed with comments on the essential technologies, existing challenges, and suggestions for the future development of intelligent robotic-assisted surgical systems toward the achievement of fully autonomous operation.