Every day, we happily entrust more
of our lives to automated machines at home and in our cities. But you could be
forgiven for blanching at the prospect of a four-armed robot bearing over you,
scalpel glinting.
But fear not, a human, and a
highly-trained one at that, is at the controls of the da Vinci robotic surgical
system.
"I think it's very important
to explain robotic surgery," says David Rosa from da Vinci creators,
Intuitive Surgical.
"The robot doesn't do anything
on its own. Every movement, all of its controls are controlled by a surgeon who
sits at a console."
The company's tele-operated robots
have performed more than
