a robotic medical snake

Mention a medical snake and people are likely to be thinking Asclepius and the single serpent crawling up a staff, or the twin serpent Caduceus medical symbol, or to others it might bring to the imagination the use of a snakes venomous poison used for medicinal purposes. On this page we are looking at a medical snake as a robot with serpentine motion.

The idea comes from the minds of Professor Howie Choset, Dr. Alan Wolf and others including Professor Marco Zenati who would later join them in their vision of what the future of medicine might be like.

Both Howie and myself are experts in snakes and robotics

Dr. Alan Wolf

The product is called CardioARM®.

Professor Choset is an expert in robotics and has been involved in the design and development of serpentine motion robot mechanisms for a long time. He is an associate professor at Carnagie Mellon University.

The CardioARM® is a medical snake and it is seriously being considered as a major medical device that could play a role in diagnosing cardiovascular and other health problems. If it ever passes the regulatory bodies the CardioARM® will become a major competitor to medical products that are by today's standards state of the art. One such product is the da vinci system. The major difference is the invasiveness of one system measured against the other. For example the da vinci surgical system could require up to six incision points whereby the CardioARM would require only one which is situated just under the xyphoid or at the bottom of the rib cage.

A medical snake such as the CardioARM® goes into the body and is controlled via a joystick by a medical professional. 

The long term vision that CardioRobotics Inc.  share is a journey into the distant future where a medical snake such as their CardioARM® will be able to enter the body as a snake but once inside it will metamorphosize into a spider with several legs. These legs or tentacles will reach away from the robotics snake central unit and conduct data mining at several points of the anatomy and where necessary perform surgery all at once. 

This they say could be the robotics medical reality of years to come. 
CardioRobotics Inc. is not only about medical robotic probes. The company is involved in the research and development of robots that could someday serve a wide range of fields including industrial sectors, the military sector, and law enforcement.