UC Santa Cruz robot stars in the film, Ender’s Game
A robot, Raven II, built by UC Santa Cruz scientists stars alongside Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield in the blockbuster film, “Ender’s Game.”
In real life, however, Raven II was designed, by UCSC physicist Jacob Rosen and colleagues at the University of Washington, to simplify and reduce the invasiveness of prostate and other surgeries.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel says:
“Surgery is such a demanding task, both from a motor-control perspective and in the decision-making required, that it is very difficult for a single individual to conduct,” Rosen said. “People are very good at decision-making, but they get tired easily by doing repetitive tasks. So one goal is to move people back to a decision-making role instead of doing the tedious processes that can potentially be automated.”
In addition, medical robots allow surgeons to conduct operations from around the world!
The Santa Cruz Sentinel continues:
Raven II aims to join other surgery-assistive devices approved by the Food and Drug Administration for clinical use, but with a price of $250,000, it offers a less expensive alternative. Some current brands cost up to $2 million, a prohibitive price for many hospitals.
Last year, five prototypes of Raven II were shipped to some of the top medical universities in the countries, including Harvard and Johns Hopkins, to field-test the system.
A Raven II prototype was used on the movie set, about an hour into the film, to simulate brain surgery on the character, Bonzo Madrid, who is played by Moisés Arias.
-Bill at
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