Vintners beware, there’s a new robot out there that can stitch grapes back together! Won’t somebody please think about the wine?
Oh, wait, this is the latest in miniature robotic surgery methods from da Vinci Surgery, and it’s actually fascinating to watch. As you can see in the video below, the claw-like hands are used not just to lay a small piece of grape skin back on the piece of fruit, but to then use sutures to sew it back in place.
While the video shows off what the Single-Site Wristed Needle Driver can do, it also notes that the piece of equipment is pending FDA 510(k) clearance and does not yet have a CE mark. The disclosure at the end of clip states that the Single-Site instruments can be used for hysterectomies and the removal of ovaries and gallbladders.
According to their site, “the da Vinci Surgical System, surgeons operate through just a few small incisions. The da Vinci System features a magnified 3D high-definition vision system and tiny wristed instruments that bend and rotate far greater than the human wrist. As a result, da Vinci enables your surgeon to operate with enhanced vision, precision, dexterity and control.”
Anything that uses cool science to make doctors even more efficient at saving and preserving lives gets our full approval, of course, but let’s hope that Stephen Hawking’s warnings about researching artificial intelligence are heeded because we certainly don’t want robots adept at sewing things coming after us or just quitting that whole surgery thing because they find us not worth their time.