BIT (Cordoba)--a new Spanish surgical robot system

Every week, there is something new! A few days ago, the BIT system was introduced in Cordoba: a teleoperational MIS robot employing three Universal Robot arms and a 3D vision system.

"A team of engineers and surgeons Cordoba and Malaga have designed the prototype of the first Spanish surgical robot, which allow to operate more accurate and less expensive way of general interventions, digestive, thoracic, cardiovascular, gynecological, pediatric and urologic surgery. The project was presented this week at the Maimonides Institute for Biomedical Research Córdoba (IMIBIC) as part of a national day of Robotic Surgical, and has been given the acronym BIT, although in the future, when it is placed, will be called Córdoba. The head of the Urology Department of the Reina Sofía Hospital in Córdoba and project coordinator José María Requena, explained that this robot will help any surgery, and replaced like the only solution available in the market, the 'Da Vinci', which is "Very expensive and difficult access of many professionals to this technology." The BIT is designed under the guidance of surgeons Reina Sofía, while the technical development of the robot has been awarded to applied research center Tecnalia, together with the group of Medical Robotics at the University of Málaga and engineers from the University of Córdoba. It has been developed with features that allow using conventional laparoscopic surgery consumables that already exists in the market, which saves costs in the use and maintenance of the robot. Also, their size makes it not necessary to adjust the operating room, and can be used in any of these areas in which laparoscopic surgery is used. Specifically, the BIT is a slave robot (which handles the surgeon) consisting of three arms that can operate in a coordinated or individual, and that allows the physician to operate sitting in front of a screen with three-dimensional vision, which your vision will be similar to that of conventional interventions. The controls, meanwhile, emulate laparoscopic instrumentation, and include tactile sensations to increase sensory perception to operate. This prototype has yet to be tested in an animal development with all necessary security measures, as specified Requena, adding that Córdoba is summed with BROCA to a field with a future and a "very important project" with "thousands of possibilities development. " However, Requena said that, for marketing, 3 or 4 years will be needed. In this regard, one of the project coordinators, Rafael Medina, he added that the second objective "is to generate industrial base in the province." "If it got put on the market, where market and where maintenance will be in Córdoba", Medina, Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Córdoba said. In fact, in the development of this prototype has been invested 3.2 million euros from 80% of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and 20% of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MINECO), and has generated 21 direct jobs."

"With logical qualifications and lack of full development, the project coordinators estimate that this prototype may have a production cost of 600,000 euros, "although it is still risky venture much worth in the future," said Rafael Medina. Similarly, maintenance costs will be the same to said one third lower American robot. The medical robotics is an important sector for development and innovation, and this prototype still need a development of about 3 or 4 years so you can start to be used in public health, in Andalusian Spain and all hospitals," said Requena."

They are not the only group relying on Universal's arms--some Chinese contenders:

See a video of the BIT here. Further: 
 

Source: El Mundo, Aula magna, Bertosin News, China News