The robot surgeon will see you now. For years, the world of medicine has been steadily advancing the art of robot-assisted procedures, enabling doctors to enhance their technique inside the operating theatre. Now US researchers say a robot has successfully performed keyhole surgery on pigs all on its own – without the guiding hand of a human. Furthermore, they add, the robot surgeon produced "significantly better" results than humans. The breakthrough is another step towards the day when fully automated surgery can be performed on patients. The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (Star) carried out laparoscopic surgery to connect two ends of an intestine in four pigs.

A new robot with flexible joints like a human will be used by the NHS next year to operate on patients. Known as Versius, it is a third of the size of robots already used by hospitals, such as the da Vinci Xi system. Experts say this should allow it to perform a wider range of delicate procedures via keyhole surgery, such as hernia repairs. Each of the robot's four arms has fully-rotating wrists, controlled by a surgeon sitting at a console with two video game-like joysticks and a 3D screen. This gives surgeons increased dexterity and a magnified view, which is thought to reduce pain and boost recovery times among patients.

By the end of 2018, surgeons in the United Kingdom could have a new assistant in the operating room: Versius, the world's smallest surgical robot. Created by CMR Surgical, the bot is essentially three robotic arms attached to a mobile unit about the size of a barstool, according to a recent report by The Guardian. A surgeon controls the bot from a control panel, guiding the arms as they carry out keyhole procedures (surgeries performed through tiny incisions in the body -- much less invasive than open surgeries, which require much larger incisions). CMR Surgical is in the process of getting Versius approved by UK regulators so that it can move out of the training room and into the operating room. The company hopes to pass this regulatory hurdle before the end of this year.

British scientists have developed the world's smallest surgical robot which could transform everyday operations for tens of thousands of patients. From a converted pig shed in the Cambridgeshire countryside, a team of 100 scientists and engineers have used low-cost technology originally developed for mobile phones and space industries to create the first robotic arm specifically designed to carry out keyhole surgery. The robot, called Versius, mimics the human arm and can be used to carry out a wide range of laparoscopic procedures – including hernia repairs, colorectal operations, and prostate and ear, nose and throat surgery – in which a series of small incisions are made to circumvent the need for traditional open surgery. This reduces complications and pain after surgery and speeds up recovery times for patients. The robot is controlled by a surgeon at a console guided by a 3D screen in the operating theatre.

What does the public sector of the future look like? Ken McGrath, head of Government at eir Business, looks at the rise of AI and robotics in the public sector and the benefits and challenges that presents. There's no doubt that recent reporting on robots and the future has ushered in a little bit of hysteria about said robots stealing our jobs and replacing humans in certain roles. What most people don't realise is that robots are already all around us; just because a supermarket's self-service checkout doesn't have eyes, doesn't make it any less of a robot. They're already embedded in organisations across Ireland and the world, helping them to work smarter and more efficiently. In the University of Limerick, for example, robotic assisted surgery is in full swing.

Robotic surgery sounds like the ultimate in safe, efficient and effective 21st-century health care. Instead of a surgeon's potentially fallible human hand, you have a robot with its precision-built mechanical arms able to perform micro-accurate procedures on tissues deep within the body. With robot-assisted surgery, the surgeon sits at a nearby console with a 3D view of the surgical site. If the surgeon's hand develops a tremor, the computer system knows to ignore it. The technology also means surgeons can use finer instruments that cause less damage to the body. In turn, this should reduce blood loss and the need for blood transfusions - and mean that patients recover more quickly.