Virtobot

An international consortium centered at the University of Bern developed an integrated system for robot-driven autopsy and accurate post-mortem inspections. The Virtobot is now servicing under Forim-X AG.

"Due to the rapid technological advances in imaging techniques, with a tremendous improvement in resolution since the nineties, the next logical step was an image-guided, minimally invasive autopsy – also referred to as virtopsy (virtual autopsy). Virtopsy will become a method of choice for several reasons in the future medical examination of corpses.
Virtobot can help with much of this process: By precisely moving a scanner building up an accurate 3D picture, or by performing an accurate needle biopsy during a live CT-scan without the need to expose pathologists to any radiation. Virtobot has already been used in 52 real cases, including 26 road deaths, 10 by impacts from a blunt object, six knifings, five shootings, and two throttlings.Computed tomography will replace scalpel and scissors, 3D surface scanning will replace surface description and 2D photography, and post-mortem angiography takes over from vascular preparation. The robot guided sampling guarantees a reliable sampling for histological, bacteriological and toxicological examination."
Advantages include:

• Precise, objective and clear documentation of forensic findings for the court
• Descriptive, subjective recording of findings (the so-called autopsy report) is replaced by a uniform system of documentation through imaging, from head to toe in the three spatial dimensions
• No information is lost due to post-mortem alterations
• Calibrated, 3D documentation of findings with reliable forensic reconstructions
• Quality assurance through digital data archiving and transfer
• The digital data sets of the imaging techniques can be exchanged and evaluated by remote
• communication, thus giving rise to “teleforensics” of the future, expert opinions can be gathered quickly and easily by mouse click
• Data saved digitally can be recalled after many years to permit new forensic deductions
• Reduction of psychological trauma for the next-of-kin
• Improved judicature in cultures with low autopsy acceptance

Source: Forim-X AG, PubMed

Update: MedGadget also featured the Virobot, along with a video I could not publish earlier for copyright reasons. Here is another footage, from a TV spot.