'Pop-Up' Sensors Support Robotic Surgery

As complex robots replace hand-held scalpels, an increasing number of today's surgeries are being performed from behind a computer console. Researchers at Harvard University's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have built low-cost, millimeter-scale force sensors that can be used on the medical robotic tools as they snake through hard-to-reach areas of the body.