Robotic brain trust

The precise field of industrial metrology is a vital part of the world of high-value manufacturing, helping to ensure components are the correct size and shape for their purpose and that production processes remain repeatable and within their tolerances. But one manufacturer is sending its machines into an area where precision and steadiness are even more vital: the delicate sphere of

brain surgery.

Renishaw’s medical business is a growing and exacting part of the Gloucestershire-based metrology specialist’s business. Its best-known activity is its production of custom-designed 3D-printed surgical implants at its facility in Cardiff; it also produces the software tools that help surgeons to design them. But its Neuromate robot takes the precision it is trusted to provide in factories around the

world into the operating theatre.

Brain surgery, of course, requires extreme precision. Just the task of locating the sites in the brain that require the attention of a surgeon is an art in itself. These sites encompass quite a variety of neurological phenomena: they might be tumours that require the precise positioning of an implant to deliver chemotherapy drugs, for example; they might also be sites implicated in conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease or severe depression (the latter two conditions can sometimes be treated using a technique called deep-brain stimulation, where an implanted electrode delivers an electric charge to a precise point in the brain).