SmartPlanet: The next generation of medical robots [video]

A robot in every operating room? Tom Low leads a team of researchers and engineers working on the next generation of medical robots to be used in laparoscopic surgery. Pioneered in the 1980s by SRI, the procedures involve doctors making very small incisions and then using long, skinny, robotically controlled tools to maneuver inside the patient. Low says robots will continue to advance and help automate many of the mundane tasks associated with surgical procedures.