Three SRI projects show how robots can improve cancer treatment, accelerate teleoperation, and learn through AI.
In his YouTube program Inside Startups, producer Will Phillips offers an in-depth look at early-stage technology that aims to change the world. A recent episode brought Phillips to SRI’s Menlo Park headquarters, where he explored three projects that are shaping the future of robotics.
Sam Frishman, founder and CEO of the SRI-incubated startup Medical Devices Corner, shows Phillips how his team’s remote-controlled robotic arm will allow physicians to perform procedures within an MRI itself. The engineering challenges here are significant. To perform procedures like biopsies within an MRI, Frishman explains, the device can’t use any steel materials that would be subject to an MRI’s intense magnetism. His system, instead, delivers precision via plastic, ceramics, and hydraulics.
Phillips also experiences SRI’s XRGo robotic system, a platform with implications in areas like biomedical research. XRGo enables hands-free manipulation from a remote location. It can be used to keep cleanrooms pristine, facilitate remote training, and operate in locations where it’s cost-prohibitive or dangerous for humans to be physically present. (SRI’s early work in telesurgery robotics resulted in its da Vinci surgical robot and the spinout of Intuitive Surgical.)
Finally, Phillips explores how SRI’s deep experience in AI-infused robotics continues to translate into cutting-edge robotics software. Meeting with the team behind a unique DARPA-funded effort to train autonomous systems, Phillips gets a first-hand look at a future in which intelligent, AI-equipped machines will quickly adapt to unstructured, dynamic environments and deliver new capabilities to commercial and defense customers.
Learn more about MDC, XRGo, and other SRI robotics technologies, or contact us today to work with us.
