Robot surgery is easy on the eye

Everybody knows R2-D2. Such is the success of the Star Wars films that even those with no interest whatsoever in science fiction would recognise the little cylindrical robot on its three legs. They might even know that its stubby body houses a number of delicate manipulators for interfacing with external computers, and carrying out precise tasks. But they might be surprised to find that fiction has begun to leak into reality, because there is now a real R2-D2 that is designed to carry out the most precise tasks. And although the characters in Star Wars trust R2-D2 implicitly, the people who come into contact with its real-world namesake will have to invest an even greater amount of trust in it, because this robot’s job is to maintain and even restore the sense most precious to human beings: eyesight.

The real-world R2-D2 is a series of trials being carried out by a surgical robot, the Preceyes surgical system (PSS). But unlike its fictional counterpart, this is no clamp-handed humanoid looming over an operating table. Instead, the PSS is a tool intended to assist human surgeons in difficult and arduous procedures. Surgical-assistance robots such as this are a relatively recent addition to the operating theatre, as they are very expensive and not yet in particularly widespread use, but in some fields of surgery they are becoming more accepted and better known.