THE PROBOT - AN ACTIVE ROBOT FOR PROSTATE RESECTION

As men age, their prostates can enlarge, causing urinary difficulty. S urgery to correct this [transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) ] is a skilled and time-consuming operation requiring many repetitive motions of a cutter. A robot has been developed to perform these motio ns, relieving the surgeon of much of the burden of surgery. This robot has been tried both in the laboratory and later on human subjects and has proved itself capable of performing prostate resection. The Probo t system consists of on-line imaging and three-dimensional prostate mo del construction, an appropriate surgeon-computer interface, a counter balanced mounting frame and a computer controlled robot.