National Museum of Health and Medicine announces opening of new robotic Surgical Instrument Server exhibit
  

Russell Baker, Mike Brady and Jay Klein prepare Penelope for her debut.

The National Museum of Health and Medicine has announced the opening of its newest exhibition -- "Penelope: The World's First Autonomous, Vision-guided, Intelligent, Robotic Surgical Instrument Server."

A robotic scrub assistant with speech recognition, machine vision, and robotic arm path planning and targeting, Penelope was developed by Robotic Surgical Tech, Inc., a Columbia University spin-out enterprise.

Dr. Michael Treat, head of the Penelope team works on Penelope’s software

Michael R. Treat, M.D., president of the Penelope Team, demonstrated the first functional prototype in 2002 at the “Engineering the Future of Surgery” symposium sponsored by the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) of the U.S. States Army. Robotic Surgical Tech, Inc. receives support from the Army and TATRC.

Penelope is comprised of 4 major hardware and software components: the robotic arm, the instrument platform, the system stand, and the system control software.

“Penelope has the potential to save thousands of dollars each year and free up valuable hospital operating room staff for other tasks,” Treat said. “We’re thrilled that our prototype will be immortalized through its acceptance into the collection at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.”

Dr. Treat, a general surgeon with more than 20 years experience in the operating room, points out the following major parts of Penelope:

• The Robotic Arm -- a 5 degree-of-freedom robotic arm with an electromagnetic gripper unpacks instruments from the back tray, arranges them on the stand, and hands them to the surgeon.
• The Instrument Platform -- a set of sterile horizontal surfaces on which Penelope stores instruments is called “instrument caches” and they're designated by levels indicating their proximity to the surgeon.
• The System Stand – a highly maneuverable and adjustable wheeled cart on which the instrument platform and robotic arm sit.
• System Control Software -- routines for speech recognition to listen to the surgeon, machine vision to see the surgical instruments, motion control to move the arm, and speech generation to give a voice.