In vivo robots for tele-surgery during long-term space flight

Long-term human space exploration will require contingencies for emergency medical procedures including some capability to perform surgery. The ability to perform Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS), or surgery performed with long tools inserted through small incisions, would be an important capability. The use of small incisions reduces surgical risk but also eliminates the surgeon's ability to view and touch the surgical environment directly. Robotic surgery, or robotic tele-surgery, may be a way to provide emergency surgical care in extremely forward environments such as space flight. Current surgical robots are large and require extensive support personnel. Therefore, their implementation has been limited in forward environments and they would be difficult to implement in space flight. This paper presents a theoretical and experimental analysis of miniature, wheeled, in vivo robots to support surgery during long-term space flight. The objective is to develop a wireless mobile imaging robot that can be placed inside the abdominal cavity during surgery. Such robots will allow the surgeon, or a remote surgeon, to view the surgical environment from multiple angles. Simulation and experimental analyses have led to a wheel design that can attain good mobility performance in in vivo conditions.