Cardiac Tapeworm
April 8th, 2008 by SBAt least, that is what I can’t help thinking.
The folks at CarNAYgie Mellon and some other excessively smart people have come up with a kick ass prototype for a supple little number for possibly traveling through your circ system and curing the signs of your fried chicken and potato chip diet.
The CardioArm is operated using a computer and a joystick. It has 102 degrees of freedom, three of which can be activated at once. This allows it to enter through a single point in the chest and wrap around the heart until it reaches the right spot to, say, remove problematic tissue. “The nice thing about [the] design is that each joint follows where you went in space. That’s not always possible in other designs,” says Webster. This kind of control prevents the probe from bumping into sensitive tissue. The disadvantage of a jointed robot, however, is that it’s harder to miniaturize, Webster says.
It also works really nicely as a model for when you do your sweded version of Dune. Plus, 120 degrees of freedom! *rowwrrrr*
