maxon says it can provide all key components of a tightly integrated robotics drive from a single source. | Source: maxon

maxon group has launched its new drive systems portfolio specifically designed for modern robotics applications. The company said it believes that developers and startups should focus on their core value drivers and challenges and leave it to maxon to take care of key complexities typically associated with robotic actuators, including high performance, reliability, supply chains, integration, and testing. 

Modern robots require highly scalable manufacturing of complex and high-performance actuators, asserted maxon. Therefore, robustness and reliability are key, especially for systems operate in unstructured environments, the company added. maxon said this is one of its strengths because it designs and tests all of its robotics products to the highest quality standards. 

The Sachsein, Switzerland-based company’s new portfolio contains 15 different actuators divided into two families: High Efficiency Joints and High Precision Joints. It said each provides unique benefits to address a broad range of industrial applications. 

maxon’s High Efficiency Joint line

The High Efficiency Joints integrate torque-dense electric motors from maxon’s EC frameless DT motor lineup, planetary gears, electronics, sensing, and support structures into a fully integrated IP67 ingress-protected actuator unit. 

maxon said this line of joints can achieve up to 86% efficiencies and can output high continuous power, thanks to their integrated cooling capabilities. The joint line’s control system can be configured flexibly and support independent control of the joint. 

Target applications are mobile robots in unstructured environments, explained maxon. This includes humanoids, quadrupeds, exoskeletons, or mobile manipulators. The company said its systems enable roboticists to quickly create a high-performing robot that follows modern design principles such as those dictated by deep reinforcement learning and related simulation approaches. 

Thje new High-Efficiency Joint HEJ 90-48-140 provides 140 Nm and 13 rad/s at the joint, is IP67 rated, and contains electronics and sensors for modern robotics control systems. | Source: maxon

maxon targets systems integrators with High Precision Joints

The High Precision Joints are more configurable systems based on strain-wave gearboxes and high-resolution output encoders, said maxon. While these actuators also feature torque-dense electric motors, the company said it’s targeting systems integrators. It said hopes to enable them to quickly create robotics systems like collaborative or industrial manipulators or surgical robots. 

maxon’s High Precision Joints allow the creation of well-optimized robots. When combined with its customer-facing robotics design simulation, optimization, and consulting services, the company said it can ensure that customers obtain the right systems for their applications. 

maxon is a fully vertically integrated provider of actuation systems ranging from brushed to brushless motors, sensors, gears, and electronics. The company said this enables it to provide robotics actuators that are high-performing, low-cost, and adaptive to customer requirements.

maxon’s High Precision Joints feature strain-wave gearboxes with no backlash and high-resolution output encoders. | Source: maxon

See maxon at webinar and Robotics Summit & Expo

Carsten Horn, applications engineering manager at maxon, and Dario Renggli, business development engineer at maxon, will participate in a free webinar at noon EDT on Wednesday, April 17, on “Motion Control for Healthcare Robotics Applications.”

In addition, Tobias Wellerdieck, head of robotic drive systems at maxon, will be speaking at the Robotics Summit & Expo, which will be on May 1 and 2 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. His talk, “Holistic Drive System Optimization for Robotics,” will discuss the challenges that come with developing robotic systems for new, complex markets. 

maxon will also be exhibiting on the Robotics Summit & Expo show floor at Booth 327. The company is also a Gold Sponsor of the event. Registration is now open.

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State-of-the-art surgical and healthcare robotics depend on precise motion control. Source: maxon

Technological advances continue to drive growing adoption of robotics in healthcare, particularly for surgical applications. Robots promise to enhance precision and safety, with 5% to 10% of robot-assisted procedures reportedly resulting in positive patient outcomes.

The global market for surgical robots is about $18 billion and could grow to $83 billion by 2032, according to Statzon. In addition, a Bain & Co. study found that 78% of U.S. surgeons are interested in robotics, but many procedures have yet to benefit from automation.

Robotics developers, suppliers, and integrators, as well as healthcare providers and practitioners, should understand how the latest, best-in-class motion-control components can improve accuracy and enable the next generation of patient care.

Learn more about motion control for healthcare robotics applications in a free webinar at noon EDT on Wednesday, April 17.

How to build better healthcare robotics

In this webinar, Carsten Horn, applications engineering manager at maxon, and Dario Renggli, business development engineer at maxon, will join Eugene Demaitre, editorial director for robotics at WTWH Media.

Horn has more than 20 years of engineering and research and development experience with robotics. Renggli specializes in healthcare applications and works at maxon’s headquarters in Switzerland. They will discuss the following topics:

• Trends in customer demands and designing for the future
• The industry’s needs for precise actuation and motion-control systems
• The pace of healthcare robotics development
• How regulatory requirements affect the design of surgical systems
• Common challenges for healthcare robot controls
• Considerations for off-the-shelf components and subassemblies versus custom designs
• The growing importance of software and artificial intelligence
• How to identify and partner with product and service providers

Register now to watch this webinar and have your questions answered live. This robotics engineering conversation will be available on demand after the broadcast date.

Sponsors:

The post Webinar: Learn about motion control for healthcare robotics applications appeared first on The Robot Report.

AMD’s Kria K26 SOM will power the hardware with the BlackBerry QNX SDP. | Source: AMD

BlackBerry Ltd. announced at Embedded World this week that it is collaborating with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The partners said they want to enable next-generation robotics by reducing latency and jitter and with “repeatable determinism.”

The companies said they will jointly “address the critical need for ‘hard’ real-time capabilities in robotics-focused hardware.” BlackBerry and AMD plan to release an affordable system-on-module (SOM) platform that delivers enhanced performance, reliability, and scalability for robotic systems in industrial healthcare. 

This platform will combine BlackBerry’s QNX expertise in real-time foundational software and the QNX Software Development Platform (SDP) with heterogeneous hardware powered by the AMD Kria K26 SOM. It features both Arm and FPGA (field programmable gate array) logic-based architecture.

“With the QNX Software Development Platform, customers can start development quickly on the AMD Kria KR260 Starter Kit and seamlessly scale to other higher-performance AMD platforms as their needs evolve,” stated Chetan Khona, senior director of industrial, vision, healthcare, and sciences markets at AMD.

“Combining the industry-leading strengths of AMD and QNX will provide a foundation platform that opens new doors for innovation and takes the future of robotics technology well beyond the constraints experienced until now,” he said.

BlackBerry, AMD provide capabilities with less latency

With Kria, an Arm sub-system can power the advanced capabilities of the QNX microkernel real-time operation system (RTOS), said Advanced Micro Devices and BlackBerry. It can do this while allowing users to run low-latency, deterministic functions on the programmable logic of the AMD Kria KR260 robotics starter kit. 

This combination enables sensor fusion, high-performance data processing, real-time control, industrial networking, and reduced latency in robotics applications, said the companies.

They added that customers can benefit from integration and optimization of software and hardware components. This results in streamlined development processes and accelerated time to market for robotics innovations, said AMD and BlackBerry. 

“An integrated solution by BlackBerry QNX through our collaboration with AMD will provide an integrated software-hardware foundation offering real-time performance, low latency, and determinism to ensure that critical robotic tasks are executed with the same level of precision and responsiveness every single time,” said Grant Courville, vice president of product and strategy at BlackBerry QNX.

“These are crucial attributes for industries carrying out finely tuned operations, such as the fast-growing industries of autonomous mobile robots and surgical robotics” he added. “Together with AMD, we are committed to driving technological advancements that address some of these most complex challenges and transform the future of the robotics industry.”

The integrated system is now available to customers.

See AMD at Robotics Summit & Expo

For more than 50 years, Advanced Micro Devices has been a leading innovator in high-performance computing (HPC), graphics, and visualization technologies. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company noted that billions of people, Fortune 500 businesses, and scientific research institutions worldwide rely on its technology daily.

AMD recently released the Embedded+ HPC architecture, the Spartan UltraScale+ FPGA family, and Versal Gen 2 for AI and edge processing.

Kosta Sidopoulos, a product engineer at AMD, will be speaking at the Robotics Summit & Expo, which takes place May 1 and 2 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. His talk on “Enabling Next-Gen AI Robotics” will delve into the unique features and capabilities of AMD’s AI-enabled products. It will highlight their adaptability and scalability for diverse robotics applications.

Registration is now open for the Robotics Summit & Expo, which will feature more than 70 speakers, 200 exhibitors, and up to 5,000 attendees, as well as numerous networking opportunities.

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Collaborative Robotics has been developing a system for trustworthy operations. Source: Adobe Stock, Photoshopped by The Robot Report

Collaborative Robotics today closed a $100 million Series B round on the road to commercializing its autonomous mobile manipulator. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company said it is developing robots that can safely and affordably work alongside people in varied manufacturing, supply chain, and healthcare workflows. In many cases, this is the same work that humanoid robots are jockeying for.

Brad Porter, a former distinguished engineer and vice president of robotics at Amazon, founded Collaborative Robotics in 2022. The Cobot team includes robotics and artificial intelligence experts from Amazon, Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft, NASA, Waymo, and more.

“Getting our first robots in the field earlier this year, coupled with today’s investment, are major milestones as we bring cobots with human-level capability into the industries of today,” stated Porter. “We see a virtuous cycle, where more robots in the field lead to improved AI and a more cost-effective supply chain. This funding will help us accelerate getting more robots into the real world.”

The Robot Report caught up with Porter to learn more about the company and its product since our last conversation in July 2023, when Cobot raised its $30 million Series A.

Nothing to see here

Collaborative Robotics has been secretive about the design of its robot. You won’t find any photos of the cobot on the company’s site or anywhere else on the Web yet.

However, Porter told The Robot Report that it is already in trials with several pilot customers, including a global logistics company. He described the machine as a mobile manipulator, with roughly the stature of a human. However, it’s not a humanoid, nor does it have a six degree-of-freedom arm or a hand with fingers.

“When talking about general-purpose robots versus special-purpose robots, we know what humanoids look like, but with a new morphology, we want to protect it for a while,” he said. “We’ve been looking at humanoids for a long time, but in manufacturing, secondary material flow is designed around humans and carts. Hospitals, airports, and stadiums are usually designed around people flow. A huge amount of people is still moving boxes, totes, and carts around the world.”

The new cobot’s base is capable of omnidirectional motion with four wheels and a swerve-drive design, along with a central structure that can acquire, carry, and place totes and boxes around the warehouse. It is just under 6 ft. (2 m) tall and can carry up to 75 lb. (34 kg), said Porter.

The robot can also engage and move existing carts with payloads weighing up to 1,500 lb. (680 kg) around the warehouse. How the robot engages carts remains part of the mystery. But by automating long-distance moves and using existing cart infrastructure, Porter said he believes that the Collaborative Robotics system is differentiated from both mobile robot platforms and humanoid competitors.

“We looked at use cases for humanoids at Amazon, but you don’t actually want the complexity of a humanoid; you want something that’s stable and could move faster than people,” Porter added. “There are orders of magnitude more mobile robots than humanoids in day-to-day use, and at $300,000 to $600,000 per robot, the capital to build the first 10 humanoids is very high. We want to get robots into the field faster.”

Collaborative Robotics has kept its actual robot out of public view. | Source: Adobe Stock image Photoshopped by The Robot Report

Robots must be trustworthy

Porter said that he “believes that robots need to be trustworthy, in addition to being safe. This philosophy is driving the design and user-interface decisions that the company has made so far. Users need to understand what the robot should do by looking at it, unlike some of the existing designs of mobile robots currently on the market.”

In addition to a human-centered design approach, Collaborative Robotics is using off-the-shelf parts to reduce the robot bill of materials cost and simplify the supply chain as it begins the process of commercialization. It is also taking a “building-block” approach to hardware and plans to adjust software and machine learning for navigation and learning new tasks.

“The robot we’ve designed is 70% off-the-shelf parts, and we can design around existing motors, while every humanoid company is hand-winding its own motors to find advanced actuation capabilities,” Porter noted. “We designed the system digitally, so we don’t have to hand-tweak a bunch of things. By using 3D lidar, we know the state of the art of the technology, and it’s easier to safety-qualify.”

With large language models (LLMs), Porter said he sees the day when someone in a hospital or another facility can just tell a robot to go away. “It’s about user interaction rather than just safety, which is table stakes,” he said. “We think a lot about trustworthiness.”

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Collaborative Robotics preps for commercialization

General Catalyst led Collaborative Robotics’ Series B round, with participation from Bison Ventures, Lux Capital, and Industry Ventures. Existing investors Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Mayo Clinic, Neo, 1984 Ventures, MVP Ventures, and Calibrate Ventures also participated.

Since its founding in 2022, Cobot said it has raised more than $140 million. The company plans to grow its headcount from 35, adding production, sales, and support staffers.

In addition, Collaborative Robotics announced that Teresa Carlson will be joining it as an advisor on go to market at scale and industry transformation. She held leadership roles at Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Splunk, and Flexport.

“I’m super-excited to be working with Teresa,” said Porter. “We’ve kept up since Amazon, and she thinks a lot about digital transformation at a very large scale — federal government and industry. She brings a wealth of knowledge about economics that will elevate the scope of what we’re doing.”

Paul Kwan, managing director at General Catalyst, is joining Alfred Lin from Sequoia on Collaborative Robotics’ board of directors. 

“In our view, Brad and Cobot are spearheading the future of human-robot interaction,” said Kwan. “We believe the Cobot team is world-class at building the necessary hardware, software, and institutional trust to achieve their vision.”

Editor’s note: Eugene Demaitre contributed to this article.

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I believe 2024 will be remembered as the year when the surgical robotics sector — not just one company — planted both feet on the ground, slowly rose up, and stood tall in the medical device industry.

Why? I’ll give you five reasons:

1. FDA approval of the da Vinci 5

Intuitive’s da Vinci 5 is the device developer’s fifth-generation system. | Credit: Intuitive Surgical

 

The approval and slow release of the next-generation da Vinci 5 reasserted Intuitive Surgical’s dominance. It may have also changed the business.

In our DeviceTalks Weekly interview, Joe Mullings, chair and CEO of The Mullings Group, an executive search firm that has worked extensively in the sector, said competitors building large surgical robotic units will have a difficult time keeping up with the da Vinci 5’s new features. 

But the bigger impact may be a smaller footprint and new leasing arrangement that could open up markets in smaller healthcare facilities to Intuitive.

“Robotic-assisted surgery-as-a-service is what Intuitive is pushing here,” Mullings said.

The interview is available on DeviceTalks.com, a sibling site to The Robot Report, or the DeviceTalks YouTube channel.

2. The emergence of smaller consoles

CMR Surgical’s Versius surgical robotics system | Credit: CMR Surgical

 

Intuitive’s move isn’t likely to impede companies that have built — and are obtaining regulatory approval for — smaller systems that open up the market for surgical robotic systems.

On May 2, I’ll talk with the senior executive team at CMR Surgical — CEO Supratim Bose, Chief Medical Officer Mark Slack, and Chief Technology Officer Luke Hares — about their commercial plans for Versius. The modular and portable robot can be moved from one operating room to another and has been used to perform more than 20,000 surgeries across seven specialties.

Co-founders Slack and Hares “created a system that could be adapted to any operating room,” Bose told MassDevice. “The hospitals, in terms of resources and investments overall for the life of this system, find Versius more of a value to them.”

Earlier this year, Virtual Incision grabbed national headlines by sending a version of its MIRA mobile surgical robotic system to the International Space Station. The publicity surrounding this news focused attention on the company’s true goal of making every operating room a surgical robotic suite.

In a DeviceTalks Weekly interview, CEO John Murphy said Virtual Incision’s robotic arm, which is fastened to the surgical table and doesn’t require a base console like other systems, will make robotics possible for integrated delivery networks (IDNs) and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) that can’t currently afford or accommodate a standard surgical robot.

Similarly, Distalmotion is poised for success with its Dexter robot, which doesn’t require a dedicated room and has disposable instruments that don’t require sterilization after use. CEO Greg Roche, who will speak at DeviceTalks Boston, said the smaller system puts the company in a position to go where patients are seeking care.

3. The drive for remote connection

Virtual Incision’s space excursion aside, surgical robotics companies recognize the importance of remote connection. At DeviceTalks Boston, we’ll have presentations from Intuitive and Medtronic focusing on the long-distance reach of their systems.

But we’re also seeing the emergence of an infrastructure built to support remote surgery. To some, 5G presents the conduit for steady connection. But serial entrepreneur Yulun Wang, who could be described as the founder of the surgical robotics sector, co-founded Sovato Health to develop a different network employing existing infrastructure of fiber-optic cables.

Wang has a knack for getting ahead of trends. He founded Computer Motion in 1990, five years before the launch of Intuitive. The companies would merge 13 years later as a resolution of a patent dispute, freeing Wang to co-found telehealth company nTouch, which was acquired by Teladoc in 2020.

Wang and Sovato co-founder and CEO Cynthia Perazzo said patients are comfortable with remote care, thanks in part to the pandemic. Regulators and hospitals also see the need for surgeons to extend their reach.

“A third of U.S. counties don’t have a single surgeon,” Perazzo said in a recent DeviceTalks Weekly interview.

On the technical side, Sovato execs said the current telecommunication network can handle the traffic. Wang recalled that the world’s first transatlantic surgery performed on a Computer Motion system in 2000 ran on an ATM line monitored by 15 engineers. Today, fiber-optic cables are plentiful.

Finally, robotic surgery companies are building systems that can be controlled remotely. In a DeviceTalks Boston keynote, Brian Miller, executive vice president and chief digital officer at Intuitive Surgical, will cover many of da Vinci’s 5’s new features, including its potential for remote surgery.

At the close of the conference, Rajit Kamal, vice president and general manager of surgical robotics at Medtronic, will demonstrate the remote functionality of Hugo RAS in a joint keynote for attendees of DeviceTalks Boston and the co-located Robotics Summit & Expo.

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4. The power of AI

The ongoing adoption of artificial intelligence will certainly accelerate the development of robot-assisted surgery. AI already has made a massive impact on the medical device industry.

Semiconductor chip giant NVIDIA added a tanker of gasoline to that fire at its 2024 GPU Technology Conference (GTC), launching close to two dozen new AI-powered, healthcare-focused tools and announcing partnerships with GE Healthcare and Johnson & Johnson.

NVIDIA already had been working with Asensus Surgical and Medtronic.

Intuitive’s Miller and Medtronic’s Kamal both intend to cover AI-powered functionality in their DeviceTalks Boston talks.

5. Experienced competition emerging

Quantum Surgical’s Epione system. | Credit: Quantum Surgical

 

The surgical robotics sector has been around enough to produce executives who have enjoyed successful outcomes. Now they’re back for more.

Former leaders from Auris Surgical Robotics, for example, are leading startups like Moon Surgical and Noah Medical.

Before becoming Distalmotion’s CEO, Roche served as global president for robotics and technology at Zimmer Biomet, where he led the successful global launch of the ROSA Robotic Knee System.

Quantum Surgical CEO Bertin Nahum led an earlier part of the ROSA story. Nahum founded one of the first successful surgical robotics companies, Medtech S.A., which was sold to Zimmer Biomet in 2016.

Nahum will speak at DeviceTalks Boston about Quantum’s Epione system, an open robotic system that brings image-guided precision to minimally invasive cancer ablation.

Finally, Stryker, one of the more experienced players in surgical robotics and the leader in hard-tissue systems, could be considering a move into soft-tissue robotics.

“We believe we are a great robotics organization,” said Spencer Stiles, group president for orthopedics and spine at Stryker, in an upcoming DeviceTalks podcast. “We remain a passionate M&A company. And so you can imagine our adjacencies, that’s an area that we continue to assess. There’s some neat technology out there for sure.”

Erik Todd, vice president and general manager of robotics and enabling technology at Stryker, will give an update on the MAKO System at DeviceTalks Boston.

So this is why we focused so much of DeviceTalks Boston on surgical robotics, but even I’m surprised at the pace at which the space is moving

If you had asked me in January, I’m not sure I would have said we’d see a new da Vinci approved by the FDA, a surgical robotics system launched into space, and a mid-tier player like Karl Storz looking to change the game by buying a small, but tested, surgical robotics company like Asensus Surgical.

This is 2024. Almost anything can happen. Join us at DeviceTalks Boston to find out what’s next.

The post 5 things that could shape surgical robotics in the next decade appeared first on The Robot Report.

The AMD Versal AI Edge and Prime Gen 2 are next-gen SoCs. Source: Advanced Micro Devices

To enable more artificial intelligence on edge devices such as robots, hardware vendors are adding to their processor portfolios. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today announced the expansion of its adaptive system on chip, or SoC, line with the new AMD Versal AI Edge Series Gen 2 and Versal Prime Series Gen 2.

“The demand for AI-enabled embedded applications is exploding and driving the need for solutions that bring together multiple compute engines on a single chip for the most efficient end-to-end acceleration within the power and area constraints of embedded systems,” stated Salil Raje, senior vice president and general of the Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group at AMD.

“Based on over 40 years of adaptive computing leadership in high-security, high-reliability, long-lifecycle, and safety-critical applications, these latest-generation Versal devices offer high compute efficiency and performance on a single architecture that scales from the low end to high end,” he added.

For more than 50 years, AMD said it has been a leading innovator in high-performance computing (HPC), graphics, and visualization technologies. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company noted that billions of people, Fortune 500 businesses, and scientific research institutions worldwide rely on its technology daily.

Versal Gen 2 addresses three phases of accelerated AI

Advanced Micro Devices said the Gen 2 systems put preprocessing, AI inference, and postprocessing on a single device to deliver accelerated AI. This provides the optimal mix for accelerated AI meet the complex processing needs of real-world embedded systems, it asserted.

• Preprocessing: The new systems include FPGA (field-programmable gate array) logic fabric for real-time preprocessing; flexible connections to a wide range of sensors; and implementation of high-throughput, low-latency data-processing pipelines.
• AI inference: AMD said it provides an array of vector processes in the form of next-generation AI Engines for efficient inference.
• Postprocessing: Arm CPU cores provide the power needed for complex decision-making and control for safety-critical applications, said AMD.

“This single-chip intelligence can eliminate the need to build multi-chip processing solutions, resulting in smaller, more efficient embedded AI systems with the potential for shorter time to market,” the company said.

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AMD builds to maximize power and compute

AMD said its latest systems offer up to 10x more scalar compute compared with the first generation, so the devices can more efficiently handle sensor processing and complex scalar workloads. The Versal Prime Gen 2 devices include new hard IP for high-throughput video processing, including up to 8K multi-channel worflows.

This makes the scalable portfolio suitable for applications such as ultra-high-definition (UHD) video streaming and recording, industrial PCs, and flight computers, according to the company.

In addition, the new SoCs include new AI Engines that AMD claimed will deliver three times the TOPS (trillions of operations per second) per watt than the first-generation Versal AI Edge Series devices.

“Balancing performance, power, [and] area, together with advanced functional safety and security, Versal Series Gen 2 devices deliver new capabilities and features,” said AMD. It added that they “enable the design of high-performance, edge-optimized products for the automotive, aerospace and defense, industrial, vision, healthcare, broadcast, and pro AV [autonomous vehicle] markets.”

“Single-chip intelligence for embedded systems will enable pervasive AI, including robotics … smart city, cloud and AI, and the digital home,” said Manuel Uhm, director for Versal marketing at AMD, in a press briefing. “All will need to be accelerated.”

The Versal Prime Gen 2 is designed for high-throughput applications such as video processing. Source: AMD

Versal powers Subaru’s ADAS vision system

Subaru Corp. is using AMD’s adaptive SoC technology in current vehicles equipped with its EyeSight advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS). EyeSight is integrated into certain car models to enable advanced safety features including adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, and pre-collision braking.

“Subaru has selected Versal AI Edge Series Gen 2 to deliver the next generation of automotive AI performance and safety for future EyeSight-equipped vehicles,” said Satoshi Katahira. He is general manager of the Advanced Integration System Department and ADAS Development Department, Engineering Division, at Subaru.

“Versal AI Edge Gen 2 devices are designed to provide the AI inference performance, ultra-low latency, and functional safety capabilities required to put cutting-edge AI-based safety features in the hands of drivers,” he added.

Vivado and Vitis part of developer toolkits

AMD said its Vivado Design Suite tools and libraries can help boost productivity and streamline hardware design cycles, offering fast compile times and enhanced-quality results. The company said the Vitis Unified Software Platform “enables embedded software, signal processing, and AI design development at users’ preferred levels of abstraction, with no FPGA experience needed.”

Earlier this year, AMD released the Embedded+ architecture for accelerated edge AI, as well as the Spartan UltraScale+ FPGA family for edge processing.

Early-access documentation for Versal Series Gen 2 is now available, along with first-generation Versal evaluation kits and design tools. AMD said it expects Gen 2 silicon samples to be available in the first half of 2025, followed by evaluation kits and system-on-modules samples in mid-2025, and production silicon in late 2025.

The post AMD releases Versal Gen 2 to improve support for embedded AI, edge processing appeared first on The Robot Report.

The Intelligent Surgical Unit powers the Senhance surgical robot system. | Source: Asensus Surgical

Asensus Surgical Inc. today announced that it has entered into a non-binding letter of intent for medical device company Karl Storz SE to acquire it.

The agreement enables Karl Storz to engage in due diligence and negotiations over a potential acquisition of the surgical robot maker. Asensus and Karl Storz began ollaborating on plans for development and marketing just over a year ago.

Entry into the letter of intent (LOI) follows an extensive period of consideration of strategic alternatives, stated Asensus. That included potential collaborations and licensing transactions, a “go-it-alone” strategy reliant upon significant fundraising, a sale of the company, or additional development transactions.

Instead, the company’s board approved the LOI with Karl Storz, which includes a proposal to acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding shares of Asensus common stock at 35¢ per share in cash. That represents a 66.7% premium to the closing price of Asensus stock on April 2, 2024. Karl Storz said that the proposed price represents its “best and final offer.”

Asensus developing Senhance, Intelligent Surgical Unit

Research Triangle Park, N.C-based Asensus is developing the Senhance surgical robot. It has also developed the Intelligent Surgical Unit (ISU) for Senhance.

The company said it designed ISU as a real-time intraoperative surgical image analytics platform. It uses “augmented intelligence” to help reduce surgical variability.

Asensus unveiled its the next-generation LUNA robot in February 2023. The integrated digital system features a next-generation surgical platform and instruments, plus real-time intraoperative clinical intelligence. Its final component, a secure cloud platform, applies machine learning to deliver clinical insights.

The company suggested last year that it targeted 2025 for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for LUNA. In November, Asensus inked a manufacturing deal for its platform.

In January 2024, the company showed LUNA off to surgeons, conducting an in vivo lab evaluation of the next-generation surgical robot. 

More details on the LOI

The letter of intent provides that, during an exclusivity period of up to 10 weeks, Asensus won’t engage in negotiations for alternative transactions. During that period, Karl Storz intends to conduct diligence as the companies negotiate a merger. Both companies have the right to terminate pursuit of the proposed transaction.

In connection with the LOI, Asensus entered into a fully secured promissory note or bridge loan with Karl Storz. This allows the company to receive a loan of up to $20 million from Karl Storz to support operations through the exclusivity period and beyond.

The companies said they plan to work during the exclusivity period to negotiate and finalize a merger agreement. If agreed, Asensus said it would then plan to quickly secure stockholder approval.

Asensus said it can’t provide any assurances of a final agreement with Karl Storz.

Asensus Surgical to speak at Robotics Summit

Dustin Vaughan, vice president of robotics research and development at Asensus, will be speaking at the Robotics Summit & Expo, which takes place on May 1-2 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

His talk, “Leveraging Real-Time Data Insights in the Operating Room” will explore the development and introduction of cutting-edge technologies, sensing modalities, and real-time data collection capabilities of the LUNA Surgical Platform and the practical implementation of those capabilities.

The Robotics Summit & Expo focuses on the design, development, and scaling of commercial robots. WTWH Media, which also produces The Robot Report, said it expects a record 5,000 attendees and more than 200 exhibitors. The event will be co-located with DeviceTalks, an event focused on medical devices, and the inaugural Digital Transformation Forum. Registration is now open for the event.

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Editor’s Note: This article was syndicated from MassDevice, a sibling site to The Robot Report.

The post Karl Storz enters talks to acquire surgical robot developer Asensus Surgical appeared first on The Robot Report.

Chris Johnson predicts that future medical robots will be used more to provide patients with emotional support than as tools. | Source: SMB Bearings

Robots are on the rise in medical environments and are being increasingly relied upon to carry out more complex procedures. Although martensitic stainless steels have been favored for bearings in robot applications, their performance is falling short against rising standards to prevent contamination in medical environments.

GlobalData predicted that the medical robotics market will rise from $4.7 billion in 2020 to $14.5 billion in 2030. The analyst firm said those robots will “be cast more as companions providing emotional support, rather than seen as tools.” The quote refers to artificial intelligence becoming more advanced, allowing robots to offer more therapeutic support to patients in ways we can’t imagine today and to counter staff shortages.

From surgical assistance robots that help perform minimally invasive procedures to therapeutic robots to aid rehabilitation for injuries and paralysis, the technology has come a long way since simple robotic arms were first introduced in the 1980s. Although surgical robots are becoming cheaper, modern medical applications are also demanding higher precision and speed capabilities from these robots. 

Traditionally, in medical instruments, bearings — which optimize the rotation of axes in robot arms by limiting or avoiding friction and jolts — have been made from high-purity metals such as martensitic stainless steel. Examples include medical robots that help undertake keyhole surgery where the utmost precision is required. Surgical robot bearings must deliver the highest possible rotational accuracy while also being small enough to fit into these often compact and portable hospital devices.

However, steel bearings have limitations including contamination. While steel bearings are tough and capable of withstanding highly corrosive environments, they are susceptible to particulate contamination due to the very high contact pressures against the steel within the bearing while it moves. If left unchecked, this contamination can cause denting and wear. 

Of course, contamination in general is unacceptable in health and safety environments. As robots become more prevalent in medical applications, regulations are getting stricter to prevent contamination.

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Ceramic can replace steel, says SMB Bearings

All of these factors influence the choice of material for bearings in medical environments — but what material can replace steel? The medical equipment sector is increasingly choosing bearings made exclusively of zirconia (ZrO2), or other exotic ceramic compounds. According to the Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining, “ceramic bearings made from ZrO₂ are tough, with similar expansion properties to chrome steel and 440 stainless steel, although they are 30% lighter.” 

Indeed, full ceramic precision bearings are harder than steel, with superior corrosion and heat resistance, higher dimensional stability, and lower density. However, ceramic bearings are expensive. This is a big issue for health institutes that operate within tight budgets, so the decision to invest in them must be well-considered. Fortunately, ceramic bearings hold a number of advantages for medical environments.

One is that the bearings don’t react to chemicals. That means they don’t corrode or weaken when subjected to harsh chemicals used for sterilization in hospitals. Ceramics don’t require lubrication that would otherwise draw contaminants like dust, water, or humidity. This also eliminates the need for maintenance processes like relubrication. Ceramic bearings are also water-resistant, so can be washed down regularly.

The need to avoid contamination accompanies other design requirements such as high speeds, low noise, and non-magnetic properties. For instance, because magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners use a strong magnetic field to generate two- or three-dimensional images of any living subject, steel bearings cannot be used due to their magnetic properties.

SMB Bearings says ceramic bearings hold a number of advantages for medical environments. | Source: SMB Bearings

Invest in the right materials for high-value applications

So, is investing in ceramic bearings for medical environments worth it? There are still certain applications where the speed and precision of steel are crucial, like in surgical robots. However, there are other instances where using the wrong components in such medical or laboratory equipment can contaminate study conditions or cause the study to cease altogether.

Instead, the extra investment in ceramic bearings can help ensure that medical robots run with effectiveness and longevity — especially as they are “cast more as companions providing emotional support, rather than seen as tools.”

About the author

Chris Johnson is the managing director at SMB Bearings, a specialist ceramic bearings supplier. Johnson has over 14 years of experience at SMB Bearings. 

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We can only guess what surgery may look like in 50 or 100 years, but one thing will always be true: The patient and surgeon will always be at the center, according to Medtronic. And the same is true for surgeons and the technology they use.

Surgical robotics isn’t about the bits or bytes; it’s about how the tools help best meet each patient’s needs to deliver the best possible outcome. Join Rajit Kamal, the vice president and general manager of Robotic Surgical Technologies at Medtronic, as he goes beyond robots to explore the intersection of people and technology shaping the future of surgery in his closing keynote at the Robotics Summit & Expo. Spoiler: There will be robots and AI—and beyond.

Kamal’s session will be at 3:30 p.m. ET on May 2 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Registration is now open for the event.

Kamal brings extensive experience to Medtronic

In his current role, Kamal is responsible for end-to-end business of Medtronic’s Hugo robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) system, which today is in use in urologic, gynecologic, and general surgery procedures in hospitals across every continent. The company‘s RAS system is not yet cleared or approved in the U.S.

Known for his people leadership skills, strategic thinking, commercial acumen, and collaborative style, Kamal said he is passionate about the positive impact that healthcare technology has on people’s lives and the critical role it plays in expanding access to care globally.

Before joining Medtronic, Kamal spent 15 years at Johnson & Johnson. Most recently, he was the worldwide president for J&J’s $1 billion Sports Medicine and Shoulder Reconstruction business, providing leadership, from strategy development and portfolio management to commercial execution. Kamal was also member of the DePuy Synthes leadership team.

Kamal started his career with Procter & Gamble in manufacturing, supply chain, and demand planning. He was later a vice president leading J&J’s $1.5 billion orthopedic business, which included digital surgery, trauma, spine, joint reconstruction, and sports medicine with a focus on China, Japan, and Australia.

Before that, Kamal was vice president and global franchise leader for a $1.5 billion knee-reconstruction business at J&J. He was responsible for global sales, profit and loss, global strategy, portfolio, and new product development.

Kamal worked earlier in his career as a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and Innosight, a customer insights and innovation consulting firm. He specialized in healthcare and advised senior management of Fortune 500 companies on go-to-market strategies, cost benchmarking, product and business model innovation, and organizational restructuring.

Kamal holds a B.S in chemical engineering with distinction from the Indian Institute of Technology, an M.S. in chemical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, an M.S. in technology management from Columbia University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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About the 2024 Robotics Summit & Expo

This will be the largest Robotics Summit ever. It will include more than 200 exhibitors, various networking opportunities, a Women in Robotics breakfast, a career fair, an engineering theater, a startup showcase, and more!

New to the event is the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards Gala. The event will include a cocktail hour, dinner, and the chance to hear from the Robot of the Year, Startup of the Year, and Application of the Year winners. Each RBR50 winner will receive two complimentary tickets to the Robotics Summit and RBR50 gala. A limited number of tickets is available to attendees, but they’re selling fast!

The Robotics Summit & Expo will be co-located with DeviceTalks, an event focused on medical devices, and the inaugural Digital Transformation Forum.

The post Medtronic to explore the future of robotic surgery at Robotics Summit appeared first on The Robot Report.

Editor’s Note: This article was syndicated from The Robot Report’s sister site Medical Design & Outsourcing.

The veil is starting to lift on medical robotics startup Mendaera Inc. as it exits stealth mode and heads toward regulatory submission with a design freeze on its first system and verification and validation imminent.

Two former Auris Health leaders co-founded the San Mateo, Calif.-based company. Mendaera also has financial support from Dr. Fred Moll, the Auris and Intuitive Surgical co-founder who is known as “the father of robotic surgery.”

“Among the innovators in the field, Mendaera’s efforts to make robotics commonplace earlier in the healthcare continuum are unique and can potentially change the future of care delivery,” stated Moll in a release.

But Mendaera isn’t a surgical robotics developer. Instead, it said it is working on technology that combines robotics, artificial intelligence, and real-time imaging in a compact device “no bigger than your fist” for procedures including percutaneous instruments.

Mendaera co-founder and CEO Josh DeFonzo. | Source: Mendaera

Josh DeFonzo, co-founder and CEO of Mendaera, offered new details about his startup’s technology and goals in an exclusive interview, as he announced the acquisition of operating room telepresence technology that Avail Medsystems developed.

Avail, which shut down last year, was founded by former Intuitive Surgical and Shockwave Medical leader Daniel Hawkins, who’s now CEO at MRI automation software startup Vista.ai. 

“We’re a very different form factor of robot that focuses on what I’ll describe as gateway procedures,” DeFonzo said. “It’s a different category of robots that we don’t believe the market has seen before [as] we’re designing and developing it.”

Those procedures include vascular access for delivery of devices or therapeutic agents; access to organs for surgical or diagnostics purposes; and pain management procedures such as regional anesthesia, neuraxial blocks, and chronic pain management. DeFonzo declined to go into much detail about specific procedures because the product is still in the development stage.

“The procedures that we are going after are those procedures that involve essentially a needle or a needle-like device and real-time imaging, and as such, there are specific procedures that we think the technology will perform very well at,” he said. “However, the technology is also designed to be able to address any suite of procedures that use those two common denominators: real-time imaging and a percutaneous instrument.”

“And the reason that’s an important point to make is that oftentimes, when you are a specialist who performs these procedures, you don’t perform just one,” added DeFonzo. “You perform a number of procedures: central venous catheters [CVCs], peripherally inserted central catheter [PICC] lines, regional anesthetic blocks that are in the interscalene area or axial blocks. The technology is really designed to enable specialists — of whom there are many — the ability to perform these procedures more consistently with a dramatically lower learning curve.”

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Mendaera marks progress to date

Preclinical testing has shown the technology has improved accuracy and efficiency in comparison with freehand techniques, regardless of the individual’s skill level, asserted DeFonzo. User research spanned around 1,000 different healthcare providers ranging from emergency medicine and interventional radiology to licensed medical doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician’s assistants.

“It seems to be very stable across user types,” he said. “So whether somebody is a novice, of intermediate skill level, or advanced, the robot is a great leveler in terms of being able to provide consistent outcomes.”

“Whereas when you look at the same techniques performed freehand, the data generally tracks with what you would expect: lesser skilled people are less accurate; more experienced people are more accurate,” DeFonzo noted. “But even in that most skilled category, we do find that the robot makes a fairly remarkable improvement on accuracy and timeliness of intervention.”

Last year, the startup expanded into a production facility to accommodate growth and volume manufacturing for the product’s launch and said its system will be powered by handheld ultrasound developer Butterfly Network’s Ultrasound-on-Chip technology.

Butterfly Network won FDA clearance in 2017 for the Butterfly iQ for iPhone. | Source: Butterfly Network

Mendaera’s aim is to eventually deploy these systems “to the absolute edge of healthcare,” starting with hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers and other procedural settings, said DeFonzo. The company will then push to alternative care sites and primary care clinics as evidence builds to support the technology.

“The entire mission for the company is to ensure essentially that high-quality intervention is afforded to every patient at every care center at every encounter,” he said. “We want to be able to push that as far to the edge of healthcare as possible, and that’s certainly something we aim to do over time, but it’s not our starting point explicitly.”

“As a practical starting point, however, we do see ourselves working in the operating room, in the interventional radiology suite, and likely in cath labs to facilitate these gateway procedures, the access that is afforded adjacent to a larger intervention,” DeFonzo acknowledged.

Mendaera said it expects to submit its system to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for review through the 510(k) pathway by the end of 2024 with the goal of offering the product clinically in 2025.

“What we really want to do with this technology is make sure that we’re leveraging not just technological trends, but really important forces in the space — robotics, imaging and AI — to dramatically improve access to care,” said DeFonzo. “Whether you’re talking about something as basic as a vascular access procedure or something as complex as transplant surgery or neurosurgery, we need to leverage technology to improve patient experience.”

“We need to leverage technology to help hospitals become more financially sustainable, ultimately improving the healthcare system as we do it,” he said. “So our vision was to utilize technology to provide solutions that aggregate across many millions, if not tens and hundreds of millions, of procedures to make a ubiquitous technology that really helps benefit our healthcare system.”

Mendaera’s research and development group will work with employees from Avail on how to best add the telepresence technology to the mix.

“We see a lot of power in what the Avail team has built,” DeFonzo said. “Bringing that alongside robotic technology, our imaging partnerships and AI, we think that we’ve got a really good opportunity to digitize to a further extent not only expertise in the form of the robot, but [also] clinical judgment, like how do you ensure that the right clinician and his or her input is present ahead of technologies like artificial intelligence that hopefully augment all users in an even more scalable way.”

The post Stealthy startup Mendaera is developing a fist-sized medical robot with Dr. Fred Moll’s support appeared first on The Robot Report.

Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci 5 is the device developer’s fifth-generation surgical robotics system. | Source: Intuitive Surgical

Editor’s Note: This article was syndicated from The Robot Report’s sister site Medical Design & Outsourcing.

Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci 5 has more than 150 design enhancements and innovations since the surgical robotics developer’s fourth-generation systems, including one feature that an Intuitive leader described as “groundbreaking.”

“Da Vinci 5 looks similar to [multiport predecessor da Vinci] Xi,” Intuitive President Dave Rosa said in a discussion of the upgrades and enhancements. “It built on Xi’s highly functional design, which has been used around the world in more than 7 million procedures.”

Rosa discussed da Vinci 5’s design along with Intuitive CEO Gary Guthart and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Myriam Curet.

“Da Vinci 5 takes surgical precision to a new level,” Rosa said. “The system is designed with next-generation surgeon controllers and patient-side manipulators with additional sensors. This combination translates to super-smooth, low-resistance and highly precise motion at both slow and high speeds. Unwanted tremor and vibration filtration is the best we’ve ever brought to market.”

The da Vinci 5’s 3D surgical imaging system is the “highest quality and most natural” ever developed by Intuitive, he said, and has additional capability for future generations of surgical endoscopes and vision software.

From a computing power standpoint, da Vinci 5 has 10,000 times more than the fourth-generation Xi system for integration with the My Intuitive app, Intuitive Hub video platform, SimNow virtual reality simulator and Case Insights, which lets surgeons review their surgeries with objective performance indicators and video of critical steps.

The extra computing power could support future features and integration such as better integration of preoperative images as Intuitive brings those into the surgical field, Rosa said.

“It sets us up for our innovation teams internally to make a lot of progress over the coming years,” he said.

Intuitive’s ‘groundbreaking’ Force Feedback tech

Curet described Intuitive’s new Force Feedback technology on the da Vinci 5 as “groundbreaking for robotic surgery.” The system measures subtle forces exerted on tissue during surgery and relays that feeling back to surgeons, a feature that the device developer says is unique to the da Vinci 5 system.

“In preclinical testing, surgeons who used the Force Feedback feedback instruments on da Vinci 5 exerted significantly less force on tissue, which could translate into less tissue trauma during surgery when compared to da Vinci Xi,” she said. “With our customers, we intend to study how this could translate to real-world clinical and patient-reported outcomes as surgeons of all experience levels use this technology in a broad range of procedures.”

“We believe that the ability to measure force during robotic surgery adds an important new data stream to surgical data science,” Curet continued. “Our insights engine will incorporate real-time surgical force measurement along with the surgical data Intuitive currently collects to build analytical insights for surgeons and care teams.”

Da Vinci 5 can record interaction forces during a case when surgeons are using force-sensing instruments. The surgeon can choose to have that haptic feedback in their hands or to turn it off.

Overall, the FDA cleared da Vinci 5 for the same indications as the da Vinci Xi, except for cardiac and pediatric procedures. The Force Feedback needle driver is contraindicated for hysterectomy and myomectomy. While surgeons can still use instruments without Force Feedback, Intuitive is going to pursue the removal of those contraindications, Curet said.

“It’s very clear that there’s significant value in using the Force Feedback needle driver, so we believe that will be used in suturing steps of procedures, but there’s also significant use in retraction and getting that Force Feedback information on the force being applied to tissue.” Curet said. “… Some of that will depend on the surgeon and how much the surgeon wants to get that information during the procedure.”

Intuitive plans prospective and retrospective studies to generate clinical evidence on Force Feedback, with database studies to follow as more surgeons use the feature. Guthart expects a healthy debate among surgeons about Force Feedback, and predicts the feature will be more useful in some procedures than others.

“There will be some surgeons —particularly very experienced surgeons — who say, ‘I can see forces, I can use visual haptics’ … but even when we observe those highly experienced surgeons in lab, when Force Feedback is on versus off there’s a different amount of force that gets transmitted to the tissue,” Guthart said.

“Some of the study here will be exactly this issue of what is the difference in clinical outcome and patient experience when you turn Force Feedback on and off,” he later continued. “It won’t be a matter of opinion — this is the thing that I love — you’ll get a chance to actually see what do you feel and what do you do. That data is the data we’re going to go out and collect over time, and I think it will be fascinating and transformative.”

User experience design and surgeon training

Curet also highlighted design improvements and innovations for increased surgeon autonomy and workflow efficiency to streamline operating room workflow and potentially save valuable time during certain procedures.

“During our clinical work and clinical trials, we saw preliminary evidence that procedures done with da Vinci 5 may take less time to complete compared to cases done with da Vinci Xi,” she said.

That’s based on what Intuitive said is aggregate, qualitative analysis of data from 53 first-in-human-use cases on da Vinci 5, including 23 surgeons at novice, intermediate, and expert experience levels.

“Faster cases that don’t compromise patient safety allow for more efficient human use of precious human and capital resources at the hospital and should be well appreciated by our customers,” Curet continued.

Intuitive is starting to see growth in emergency and short-scheduled surgery volumes with da Vinci X and Xi, Guthart said. Da Vinci 5 could accelerate that trend if it proves easy to learn and delivers higher throughput over time.

The ability for the surgeon to be more autonomous means he or she is less dependent on the expertise of the care team,” Curet said in a folllow-up. “The after-hours care teams have to do a larger breadth of procedures, so they may not know as much in-depth. I think that’s where da Vinci 5 can really bring value.”

Da Vinci 5 training for surgeons who are experienced with da Vinci Xi “is pretty rapid and actually can be done at the hospital” said Curet, citing Intuitive’s IDE studies and experience from the preclinical study lab. ” For surgeons who are new to robotics who are going to learn on DV5, they will follow our typical pathway that they would have followed for Xi, which is multilearning modality, multiday, multihour training pathway until they reach the ability to use the system independently.”

Intuitive’s da Vinci 5 ergonomics design

The Intuitive Surgical da Vinci 5’s surgeon console. | Source: Intuitive Surgical

Intuitive also designed the Da Vinci 5 system with ergonomic features to help surgeons make the most of every day.

Rosa said Intuitive’s design team “prioritized the often undervalued area of ergonomics” for surgeon comfort and stamina in the surgeon’s console, which “allows for a broad range of surgeon postures [and] less physical strain to the surgeon during the operation.”

To help surgeons be more productive on a daily basis and to lengthen their professional lifespans, Intuitive designed the surgeon’s console with musculoskeletal problems, repetitive motion issues and fatigue in mind. Intuitive also designed the latest system with easy-to-reach controls for the rest of the care team.

“We are all aware of the increasing need for surgeons around the world,” Curet said. “Intuitive continues our commitment to improving ergonomics with da Vinci 5 enhancements that could improve care team satisfaction and enable higher productivity during a single operative case and over a career.”

The latest surgeon console can fit different body types, including surgeons who are pregnant.

Previously: Intuitive’s Kathryn Rieger on human factors design in surgical robotics

More tools in da Vinci 5’s toolbox

The Intuitive Surgical da Vinci 5 insufflator. | Source: Intuitive Surgical

Intuitive included equipment on da Vinci 5 that had previously been purchased by hospitals as third-party add-ons, such as cameras, insufflators and electrosurgical generators.

The insufflator, for example, features integrated smoke evacuation with automatic sensing and actuation. However, even though the insufflator comes with da Vinci 5, customers can still use third-party tools with the new system.

Intuitive integrated those capabilities with da Vinci 5 for two reasons, Rosa said. The first is to add to the overall care team experience with better workflows and efficiencies. The second, he said, is because that equipment can generate or capture data that might be important to Intuitive’s efforts to deliver actionable insights and analytics to customers.

A big step forward

“Sophisticated technology tools well integrated into the operating room should be ubiquitous, and we think this is a step on that on that journey,” Guthart said. “I don’t think most surgeons care about the word robots, and I don’t think patients care about robots, nor should they. I think this is about how do you make really high quality surgery ubiquitous, how do you make it easier for care teams to become proficient quickly and in a data-driven way?”

“There’s an opportunity here, and one of the big steps forward in da Vinci 5 is really setting up surgical data science, the ability to have integrated, high quality, synchronized data that allows computation plus sharp care teams to make really good decisions about what they’re doing and how to improve,” he continued. “And I think if we do that in a way that lowers the total cost to treat per patient episode so that it’s self-financing for the healthcare systems … that is the ethos behind da Vinci 5. I think it’s another step. It’s not the last step. It’s just the next step. And I think it’s going to get us there.”

Editor’s Note: This article was syndicated from The Robot Report’s sister site Medical Design & Outsourcing.

The post The Intuitive da Vinci 5’s top design changes: ‘This is groundbreaking for robotic surgery’ appeared first on The Robot Report.

Titan Medical’s Enos system can assist surgeons. | Source: Titan Medical

Titan Medical announced today that it entered into a definitive amalgamation agreement to combine with Conavi Medical.

The companies aim to combine in an all-stock transaction, focusing on commercializing Conavi’s Novasight Hybrid system. Conavi designed Novasight Hybrid to guide common minimally invasive coronary procedures.

This merger comes after more than a year of uncertainty around the future at Titan Medical. In late 2022, Titan suspended a special meeting of shareholders meant to vote on a share consolidation plan. Management decided to begin a strategic review, with a sale of the company considered a possibility. Titan also announced cost-cutting measures that included the furloughing of 40 employees.

In a news release, the company said it conducted outreach to more than 40 potential counterparties and halted the development of its ENOS surgical robot in February 2023. To avoid insolvency, the company began selling assets and licensed its IP. It struck deals on that front in May, June and August 2023, including licensing surgical robotics IP to market leader Intuitive Surgical.

Titan said it determined that merging with another surgical robotics company was “not a viable option.” It expanded its search and landed on Conavi.

“This merger is the result of a thoughtful and careful review of strategic options and reflects the continued commitment of our management team and board of directors to deliver value to shareholders,” said Paul Cataford, Titan’s interim CEO and board chair. “Conavi is an exciting commercial-stage company with groundbreaking technology and an accomplished management team. We are confident in their ability to continue to drive adoption of the Novasight Hybrid system.”

More about Conavi Medical

Conavi Medical designs, manufactures and markets imaging technologies for guiding minimally invasive cardiovascular procedures. Novasight Hybrid combines both intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) to enable simultaneous and co-registered imaging of coronary arteries.

The Novasight Hybrid system has FDA 510(k) clearance and regulatory nods in other geographies like Canada, China and Japan.

With Titan Medical, Conavi expects the combined company to become a commercial-stage leader in hybrid intravascular imaging.

“This planned merger comes at a pivotal moment in the evolution of our company as we continue to advance the Novasight Hybrid system, which provides simultaneous and complementary data with which to better inform patient care, while offering providers a more cost- and space-effective option when purchasing intravascular imaging equipment,” said Conavi CEO Thomas Looby. “Gaining access to the public capital markets will enhance our financial strength and fuel our growth strategy, enabling us to unlock the full potential of our hybrid imaging technology in the United States and globally.”

More details on the Titan Medical-Conavi Medical merger

Under the terms of the agreement, Titan plans to acquire all issued and outstanding shares of Conavi. In exchange, Conavi shareholders, receive common shares of Titan. The deal constitutes a reverse takeover of Titan. In connection with the merger, Titan expects to delist its common shares from the Toronto Stock Exchange. Instead, they will be listed on the TSX Venture Exchange.

The companies expect the transaction to close on or around July 15, 2024.

Titan plans to effect a consolidation of its shares. As a condition to the completion, Conavi plans to complete a concurrent financing of subscription receipts. The companies anticipate minimum gross proceeds of $15 million with a maximum of $20 million.

Following the consolidation and concurrent financing, a wholly-owned Titan subsidiary will amalgamate with Conavi. Oustanding post-consolidation Titan shares then go to Conavi shareholders. The companies value Conavi at $69.84 million and the deal includes an allocation of $5 million in the pre-transaction valuation of Titan.

Titan plans to hold a special and annual meeting of shareholders to approve a number of conditions within the deal. That includes the change of the name from Titan Medical to Conavi Medical, or such other name as approved by their boards. Other conditions include the consolidation and a new equity incentive plan.

Editor’s Note: This article was syndicated from The Robot Report’s sister site MassDevice. 

The post Titan Medical enters merger with Conavi Medical appeared first on The Robot Report.

The complete Intuitive Surgical da Vinci 5 surgical robot system. | Credit: Intuitive Surgical

Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) announced today that it secured FDA 510(k) clearance for its next-generation da Vinci 5 multiport surgical robotics system. 

The news comes less than two months after the dominant surgical robotics developer disclosed that it had submitted for the much-anticipated clearance, revealing the name of the new system in the process. (Here is our roundup of top surgical robotics companies.)

Da Vinci joins a deep portfolio of solutions from Intuitive

The da Vinci 5 joins Intuitive’s existing da Vinci robotic surgical system portfolio alongside the multiport X and Xi systems and the single-port SP. There is also Ion, Intuitive’s robotic-assisted platform for minimally invasive biopsy in the lung.

“We are pleased to receive FDA clearance for our fifth-generation robotic system, da Vinci 5,” CEO Gary Guthart said in a news release after the market closed.

“Intuitive is committed to meaningful improvements in surgery that enable better patient outcomes, enhance the patient and care team experiences, and ultimately lower the total cost of care,” he continued. “After more than a decade of careful research, design, development, and testing, we believe da Vinci 5 will deliver on these goals and help drive the future of robotic-assisted surgery.”

Da Vinci 5 features:

Intuitive shared more details about how the da Vinci 5 improves on previous da Vinci robots.

The Intuitive Surgical da Vinci 5 tower [Image courtesy of Intuitive Surgical]

• The company says new surgeon controllers and powerful vibration and tremor controls make the da Vinci 5 the smoothest and most precise system it has developed to date;
• Intuitive says the da Vinci 5 has a next-generation 3D display and image processing, providing a high-quality and natural imaging experience. The goal is to enable surgeons to see more today and support future generations of surgical endoscopes and vision software.
• Da Vinci 5 introduces Force Feedback technology and optional instruments that enable the system to measure and surgeons to feel subtle forces exerted on tissue during surgery. Intuitive says this feature is something no other surgical technology in any modality presently offers. Intuitive says preclinical trials showed surgeries with Force Feedback demonstrated up to 43% less force exerted on tissue, which could result in less trauma on tissue.
• In addition to potentially less tissue trauma, Force Feedback will add an important new data stream to surgical data science, according to Intuitive. (Note: The Force Feedback instruments are optional for use with da Vinci; they cleared for many of the same procedures as da Vinci Xi.)

The Intuitive Surgical da Vinci 5 insufflator [Image courtesy of Intuitive Surgical]

• Da Vinci 5 also has features to help increase surgeon autonomy and streamline surgeon and care team workflow, boosting healthcare efficiency. ​For example, da Vinci 5 has integrated key OR technologies, including insufflation and an electrosurgical unit. There is also an optimized user interface, with settings that are accessible by the broader surgical team and by the surgeon directly from the head-in menu. Plus, surgeons can access other key settings while head-in to help them stay focused on the surgical field.

• Da Vinci 5 has more than 10,000 times the computing power of da Vinci Xi. Intuitive says the greatly boosted computing power enables innovative new system capabilities and advanced digital experiences — now and in the future. There is integration with Intuitive’s My Intuitive app, SimNow (virtual reality simulator), Case Insights (computational observer), and Intuitive Hub (edge computing system).
• Features to increase surgeon comfort include a redesigned console capable of customizable positioning, allowing surgeons to find their best fit for surgical viewing and comfort. Surgeons even have the ability to sit completely upright. The surgeon can make any necessary adjustments while their head is in the console. In addition, there are options designed to fit different body types, including surgeons who are pregnant.

The Intuitive Surgical da Vinci 5’s surgeon console [Image courtesy of Intuitive Surgical]

Limited availability for initial release

Da Vinci 5 will initially be available to a small number of customers in the U.S. who collaborated with Intuitive during the development period and those with mature robotic surgery programs. The company’s goal is to work with surgeons at these initial sites to generate additional data on the system’s use before a wider commercial introduction.

“We strive to provide customers with technology that meets their needs and solves important problems,” said Intuitive Chief Medical Officer Dr. Myriam Curet. “We intend to launch da Vinci 5 more broadly in the U.S. and globally after we learn from and work with an initial smaller number of customers directly.”

Curet discussed the secret behind Intuitive’s surgical robotics success last year with our sibling site Medical Design & Outsourcing.

For an inside look at what the Da Vinci 5 is capable of, register now to attend DeviceTalks Boston. Intuitive EVP and Chief Digital Officer Brian Miller will review some of the futuristic functionality of the new system in a closing keynote, “Intuitive: The Future is Now with da Vinci 5.”

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The post Intuitive secures FDA clearance for da Vinci 5 surgical robot appeared first on The Robot Report.

ABB has expanded production, staff, and training space in Auburn Hills, Mich. Source: ABB

ABB Ltd. today opened its renovated U.S. robotics headquarters and manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills, Mich. The company said the site will support ABB Robotics’ development and production of leading systems in and for the Americas.

ABB added that it is investing in long-term growth in the U.S. market, which it predicted will experience an 8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). The company, which is based in Sweden and Switzerland, said this is its third global robotics factory expansion in three years across China, Europe, and the Americas and is part of its efforts to strengthen its “local-for-local” footprint.

“The opening of our refitted state-of-the-art U.S. robotics headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich., is a significant part of our global growth story, reaffirming our commitment to industry leadership in the U.S.,” stated Sami Atiya, president of ABB’s Robotics and Discrete Automation Business Area. “Robotics and AI are essential tools for companies in addressing critical labor shortages, localized supply chains, and the need to operate more sustainably.”

“The advances in AI-driven software and hardware make our robots more accessible to a wider range of businesses, enabling them to increase resilience and become more competitive,” he added. “America is now the world’s second-largest robotics market, and our production facility will help ABB support existing customers, as well as new growth sectors across the U.S. and the Americas region.”

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Auburn Hills gets four enhancements

With a 30% increase in space, the $20 million Auburn Hills facility will support ABB’s efforts to be a strategic partner for its growing customer base.

“We had our first manipulator roll off the line in 2016, and ABB is still the first major robotics company to manufacture systems in the U.S.,” said John Bubnikovich, president of ABB’s U.S. Robotics Division. “We want this and our other competence centers to get closer to customers, to understand their needs and requirements from a segment standpoint.”

He told The Robot Report that the expanded facilities include four key parts: a Customer Experience Center, training space, more flexible production, and modernized employee workspaces.

From left: Marc Segura, John Bubnikovich, and Sami Atiya cut the ribbon opening ABB’s new facility. Source: ABB

Customer Experience Center

Bubnikovich said ABB’s new Customer Experience Center will “showcase its latest and greatest technologies.” It will also provide a venue for ABB to collaborate with educational institutions and customers on digital and AI-powered automation.

“Robots used to be complicated and needed a lot of people to deploy, but it’s now easier,” Bubnikovich said. “Education and outreach are critical factors to growth. An SME [small-to-midsize enterprise] can now effectively apply robots without an army of engineers.”

New training center

While ABB had already trained 5,000 staffers and users to date, the expansion will increase the number of people going through application and robot training, he said.

Complete with a new training center, the Ann Arbor facility will educate more than 5,000 workers and students each year. In addition to capitalizing on the concentration of technical skills in the community, ABB said it will train workers with no prior experience or degree with the skills needed to build a successful career in the robotics and automation industry.

“There will be something for everyone — from basic robot programming to advanced applications like painting,” said Bubnikovich.

ABB expands localized production

The localized production capability will provide flexibility, supply chain resilience, and the opportunity to learn from the experiences of ABB’s units around the world, he added.

“Operations are creating engineering development platforms, or EDPs, in local regions,” said Bubnikovich. “For instance, Mexico recently surpassed China for imports into the U.S., and we can leverage some modular assembly in Mexico for efficiencies of scale.”

“We have three global factories — Auburn Hills, Sweden, and Shanghai — and we’re adding models and autonomous mobile robots [AMRs] for local use,” said Bubnikovich. ABB acquired AMR maker ASTI in 2021. “Our robots will be integrated into production processes throughout the factory. This will help our understanding of how customers apply robots differently, even in the same application space. What better way to demonstrate our products?”

The expanded facility will support ABB Robotics’ specialist centers including its Packaging and Logistics hub in Atlanta; its Life Sciences and Healthcare hub at the Texas Medical Center in Houston; and its AI Research Lab in San Jose, Calif.

“We also opened up a Root-Cause Analysis [RCA] center to increase responsiveness,” Bubnikovich said. “It used to take 60 days to do RCA because we had to send equipment back to Sweden, but now it takes under 10 days. The competence to diagnose a problem and make adjustments — that guarantees quality in addition to local manufacturing,”

The new training center will show that robots have changed manufacturing jobs for the better. Source: ABB

A modern workplace

The workplace modernization is intended to help ABB attract and retain talent, plus build a culture of internal collaboration, said Bubnikovich.

“Jobs in an automated plant are higher-skilled work than just assembly,” said Bubnikovich. “They include doing maintenance on robots, fine-tuning programming, and other things as you evolve production for efficiency and synergy. This investment will be a win-win.”

ABB invests in Michigan manufacturing

ABB noted that the expansion will create jobs with support from a $450,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant.

ABB Robotics has invested $30 million in training since 2019 across four locations, opening its Auburn Hills manufacturing facility in 2015. The latest investment in Auburn Hills is part of the previously announced approximately $170 million that ABB is investing in its electrification and automation businesses across the U.S.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer tours renovated ABB facility. Source: ABB

“ABB’s $20 million investment in Auburn Hills will create more than 70 good-paying, high-skill jobs and build on Michigan’s advanced manufacturing leadership,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer during the opening ceremony. “Around the world, ABB’s technology supports the production of electric vehicles, medical devices, electronics, and even pastries.”

“Today’s expansion at their robotics headquarters will tighten the supply chain and cut down on production delays, while building on ABB’s long-standing investments in local workforce development and hands-on education,” she said. “Let’s keep competing to bring more cutting-edge investments home to Michigan.”

“Through our expanded facility, partner ecosystem and comprehensive AI-enabled product portfolio, we are pushing the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels,” said Bubnikovich. “We look forward to increasing support for our customers, to expanding our role as an employer, and to energizing the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future.”

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MIRA features a small, self-contained surgical device that can perform abdominal surgeries. | Source: Virtual Incision

Virtual Incision announced that the FDA granted marketing authorization to its MIRA miniaturized surgical robotic system.

The FDA gave the nod for the use of the miniRAS (robotic-assisted surgery) system in adults undergoing colectomy procedures. MIRA went through the FDA’s de novo classification process, with findings based on an investigational device exemption (IDE) study.

Virtual Incision’s MIRA system features a small, self-contained surgical device. Inserted through a single midline umbilical incision in the patient’s abdomen, it allows for complex, multi-quadrant abdominal surgeries. The system also uses existing minimally invasive tools and techniques that are familiar to surgeons. Altogether, MIRA weighs about two pounds.

According to the company, the system’s tray-to-table design could provide the advantages of robotic surgery without requiring them to organize the operating room around the device — a current challenge with surgical robots.

“Today marks a turning point in surgical robotics as we have hit a significant milestone in making miniaturized robotic surgery a reality,” said Virtual Incision President and CEO John Murphy. “For more than a decade, our team has been dedicated to our core mission of making every operating room robot-ready. I’m incredibly proud to see our efforts come to fruition. We extend our gratitude to the FDA for its thoughtful review of MIRA’s technology and our clinical evidence.

“Whether as a complement to the existing mainframes or as a stand-alone platform, miniaturization has the potential to accelerate the adoption of robotic-assisted surgery.”

Hear from Virtual Incision during the Surgical Robotics Week series next month.

How the Virtual Incision MIRA system got here

A surgeon holds the miniature MIRA surgical robot. | Source: Virtual Incision

The MIRA platform received IDE approval in October 2020, followed by approval for an IDE supplement in April. Virtual Incision submitted MIRA to the FDA for de novo review in May 2023. Notably, MIRA went to space last month, with NASA awarding a grant to use the system on a 2024 technology demonstration mission.

In November 2021, Virtual Incision completed a $46 million Series C financing round to support the robotic surgery platform. Virtual Incision then raised $30 million more in September 2023.

Virtual Incision plans to begin commercialization of MIRA through a first access program across select U.S. centers. It plans to ramp up production and expand to additional sites over time. The company also hopes to pursue additional indications, including gynecology, general surgery, urology and other soft tissue and solid organ surgery.

It plans for gynecological procedures in 2024. Additionally, the company has a new iteration of the technology tailored for general surgery in its design stage. It expects first-in-human uses outside the U.S. later this year.

Editor’s Note: This article was syndicated from The Robot Report’s sister site MassDevice. 

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