Ericsson and King’s College London have demonstrated a 5G use case of tactile robotic surgery.
The “Remote Control and Intervention” 5G medical use case showed a probe as a robotic representation of a biological finger that gives the surgeon the sense of touch in minimally invasive surgery, and is able to send accurate real time localization of hard nodules in soft tissue.
The probe, or robotic finger, is able to identify cancer tissue and send information back to the surgeon as haptic feedback.
Valter D’Avino, head of Ericsson Western & Central Europe, comments: “Through this 5G simulation demonstration we can show how latency is a critical part of what 5G can deliver, bringing both the sense of touch and an essential real-time video feed to remote surgery.”
Professor Mischa Dohler, Head of the Centre for Telecommunications Research in the Department of Informatics at King’s College London, says: “By 5G enabling enhanced minimally invasive remote surgery, the number of applications escalates and the advantages are no longer geographically localised. It enables worldwide mentorship and scalability of diagnosis and intervention.”