A surgical drone designed in India.
New Delhi, April 9 (EFE)
Extracting shrapnel or stopping bleeding in a war zone using a drone operated by a doctor thousands of kilometers away is the promise of a new robotic prototype presented this Thursday in New Delhi, designed to revolutionize emergency medical care on battlefronts and in devastated areas.
The device, developed by the India-based technology company SS Innovations (SSI), has the ability to fly to an injured person, land on them, and then use its two robotic arms to stabilize them until they can be evacuated.
The prototype, officially named “SSi Vimana Aero,” is designed to be transported by an autonomous heavy-lift drone. Its design includes miniature robotic arms with seven degrees of freedom to accurately replicate human hand movements in harsh environments.
These drones are equipped with high-precision surgical instruments, including forceps, a cauterizing device, scissors, needle holders, and a suction device. According to the creators, under the remote control of a surgeon located “anywhere in the world,” the drone will be able to perform sutures and critical first-contact procedures.
“It’s still a prototype. But we believe it can be ready in no more than eight months,” explained the company’s Chief Technology Officer, Rama Krishna Reddy, during the third SSI World Conference on Multi-Specialty Robotic Surgery, held this Thursday.
India is one of the countries where the robotic surgery sector has experienced the fastest growth. The International Trade Administration, a U.S. government agency, estimates that the market value will increase from$851 million (€729 million) in 2023 to almost $4 billion (€3.425 billion) in 2031.
In 2023, more than 15% of general surgeries in North America were assisted by robotics, according to estimates from the consulting firm iData Research, with companies such as da Vinci Surgical System and Medtronic leading the market.
Telesurgery
To demonstrate the feasibility of remote surgeries, the developers showcased three live procedures today. The doctors, seated in chairs equipped with precision controls, pedals, and virtual reality headsets, operated on patients physically located in different hospitals across the country.
According to SSI CEO Dr. Vishwa Srivastava, the company has already successfully performed more than 150 telesurgeries. He asserted that expanding these networks would help close healthcare access gaps, especially in rural or underserved areas.
The viability of this long-distance technology has already been proven, according to the company itself. Using the SSi MantrAsana control console, which operates with a minimal latency of 35 to 40 milliseconds, the company’s surgeons recently performed surgery from Mumbai on a patient located in Muscat, Oman, more than 1,500 kilometers away.
