(February 3, 2014) Student invention could help teach doctors to perform complex,
robot-assisted surgeries
Would you let an artist perform life-saving surgery on you?
You might someday, if the artist is a painting robot.
Timothy Lee built a robotic painting arm that can replicate
the lines and shapes a surgeon makes with a scalpel using a paintbrush and
canvas. His invention, a creative blend of art and science, could one day lend
doctors a hand in practicing complex, robot-assisted surgeries without having
to step foot in an operating room.
Rethinking robotics
Lee, a sophomore who plans to major in chemistry, spent his
high school years building everything from a robot that can balance on a beam
to a robotic arm that can throw a ball. During his first year at Wake Forest,
he heard about a percussion-playing robot designed by Georgia Tech researchers
and started thinking about new ways to apply his hobby.
“I never really thought you could do music with robots,” he
said. “That got me thinking, ‘What else can you do with robots that most people
wouldn’t think about or imagine happening?’ I thought I could do something with
painting and that prompted the idea of robotic surgery.”
Lee said painting and surgery have more in common than
initially meets the eye. A painter has to be nimble and precise with his
brushstrokes much like a surgeon must be nimble and precise with a scalpel.