Latest news with #SRT-H
The Print
3 days ago
- Science
- The Print
A fiery side-effect of melting glaciers & paging Dr Droid for gallbladder surgery
The scientists found that after the last ice age, melting glaciers triggered powerful eruptions from deep magma chambers. While the magma system responds slowly, the volcanic activity can be explosive, and even influence global climate. Big eruptions release aerosols that cool the Earth briefly, but repeated eruptions can add greenhouse gases, speeding up warming. They studied six volcanoes in southern Chile using rock dating and crystal analysis to understand the impact of the Patagonian Ice Sheet on past eruptions. They found that thick glaciers can keep magma trapped deep underground. But as the ice melts and the pressure eases, the magma can rise and explode more violently. This process, already seen in Iceland in the 1970s, may also affect other glaciated regions like Antarctica, North America, and New Zealand. New Delhi: New research posits that one of the side effects of melting glaciers due to global warming could be an increasing number of volcanic eruptions. Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison drew this connection in a presentation on 8 July at the Goldschmidt conference of the European Association of Geochemistry. The study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal later this year. Also read: That morning brew could be doing more than just jumpstarting your day—helping your cells age gracefully Robot performs gall bladder surgery without human intervention A robot trained by Johns Hopkins researchers successfully performed a complex portion of a gallbladder removal surgery on a lifelike model. The findings were published in a new paper in the peer-reviewed Science Robotics journal on 9 July. Unlike previous robots that follow strict, pre-programmed instructions, this one, called SRT-H, learned and adapted from voice commands by surgeons, like a real surgical trainee. It was trained using surgery videos and captions and can even respond to voice commands like 'grab the gallbladder head' or 'move left'. Think of it as a surgical assistant that's both incredibly precise and smart enough to think on its feet. The robot handled a full sequence of 17 surgical tasks, adjusted to different anatomy, and coped with unexpected situations like changes in how the gallbladder looked. While slower than a human, its accuracy matched that of surgeons, said the paper. According to the authors, this robot could pave the way for autonomous systems to one day assist or even lead real surgeries, especially in high-risk or remote situations. Airport radar signals might be detected by alien civilisations Every time a plane takes off from Heathrow airport or JFK airport in the US, or a military radar scans the skies for incoming threats, the Earth may be sending out a cosmic 'we're here!' to the universe. New research presented at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting on 8 July reveals that the radar systems used by airports and militaries across the globe are powerful enough to be detected by alien civilisations up to 200 light-years away—if those aliens have radio telescopes as sensitive as ours. However, these are preliminary results and have not been published in a journal yet. These unintentional signals radiate far beyond our planet. Researchers from the University of Manchester, who presented this work, simulated how these waves spread into space. They found that from the perspective of nearby stars like Barnard's Star, Earth might appear to blink with distinct, artificial patterns. Military radars, in particular, act like sweeping lighthouse beams, and their focused energy could stand out as clear signs of intelligent life. The research suggests that any technologically advanced planet, not just ours, might light up the cosmos in this way, offering a universal clue to alien astronomers that someone is out there, watching the skies. Why are sharks blue? Blue sharks don't just wear their colour, rather they engineer it. New research presented at the Society for Experimental Biology's Annual Conference on 9 July said that sharks' iconic blue shimmer comes from a hidden world of nanoscopic crystals and pigments embedded deep within their skin's tiny scales, called dermal denticles. These scales are armoured with pulp cavities filled with reflective guanine crystals, which act as mirrors, and melanin vesicles, which absorb light. Together, they act like coordinated teams of glitter and blackout curtains, filtering light to create that signature deep-sea blue. But the twist is that this isn't just a static paint job. These structures may allow the shark to change its color. The research team, using powerful imaging tools and computer models, found that subtle shifts in the spacing of these crystals could shift the shark's hue from vibrant blues to greens and golds. Changes in water depth, water pressure, and even atmospheric humidity causes these shifts in colour. Also read: It's official: New object zipping through our solar system is the 3rd known interstellar visitor
Mint
5 days ago
- Health
- Mint
Study describes robot operating on gall bladder autonomously, milestone in use of AI in clinical setting
New Delhi, Jul 10 (PTI) Researchers have documented a fully autonomous surgery performed by a robot on gall bladders made of human tissue with 100 per cent accuracy, which they said marked a milestone in deploying these systems in a clinical setting. In a paper published in the journal 'Science Robotics', the team, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the US, said the robot 'SRT-H' was trained on the videos of surgeons operating on dead pigs. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that systems such as ChatGPT function on, the 'Surgical Robot Transformer-Hierarchy', or SRT-H, also responded to and learned from voice commands from the team while performing the operation -- like a novice surgeon working with a mentor, they added. "This advancement moves us from robots that can execute specific surgical tasks to robots that truly understand surgical procedures," author and medical roboticist Axel Krieger from Johns Hopkins University said. "This is a critical distinction that brings us significantly closer to clinically viable autonomous surgical systems that can work in the messy, unpredictable reality of actual patient care," Krieger said. The team had previously documented a laparoscopic surgery performed by a robot on a pig -- the first autonomous one on a live animal, they said. However, the robot had required a tissue that was specially marked for surgical intervention, worked in a highly controlled environment and followed a rigid, predetermined surgical plan. The SRT-H robot truly performs surgery, adapting to individual anatomical features in real-time, making decisions on the fly, and self-correcting when things don't go as expected, the researchers said. They wrote, "We propose a hierarchical framework for performing dexterous, long-horizon surgical steps. "Our method achieves a 100 per cent success rate across eight different ex vivo gallbladders, operating fully autonomously without human intervention." The work marks a "milestone towards clinical deployment of autonomous surgical systems," they wrote. They added that while the robot took longer to operate as compared to a human surgeon, results were comparable to an expert surgeon. Lead author Ji Woong Kim, a former postdoctoral researcher at Johns Hopkins University, said, "This work represents a major leap from prior efforts because it tackles some of the fundamental barriers to deploying autonomous surgical robots in the real world." "Our work shows that AI models can be made reliable enough for surgical autonomy -- something that once felt far-off but is now demonstrably viable," Kim said.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
Study describes robot operating on gall bladder autonomously, 'milestone' in use of AI
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills Researchers have documented a fully autonomous surgery performed by a robot on gall bladders made of human tissue with 100 per cent accuracy, which they said marked a milestone in deploying these systems in a clinical a paper published in the journal ' Science Robotics ', the team, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the US, said the robot 'SRT-H' was trained on the videos of surgeons operating on dead by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that systems such as ChatGPT function on, the 'Surgical Robot Transformer-Hierarchy', or SRT-H, also responded to and learned from voice commands from the team while performing the operation -- like a novice surgeon working with a mentor, they added."This advancement moves us from robots that can execute specific surgical tasks to robots that truly understand surgical procedures," author and medical roboticist Axel Krieger from Johns Hopkins University said."This is a critical distinction that brings us significantly closer to clinically viable autonomous surgical systems that can work in the messy, unpredictable reality of actual patient care," Krieger team had previously documented a laparoscopic surgery performed by a robot on a pig -- the first autonomous one on a live animal, they the robot had required a tissue that was specially marked for surgical intervention, worked in a highly controlled environment and followed a rigid, predetermined surgical SRT-H robot truly performs surgery, adapting to individual anatomical features in real-time, making decisions on the fly, and self-correcting when things don't go as expected, the researchers wrote, "We propose a hierarchical framework for performing dexterous, long-horizon surgical steps."Our method achieves a 100 per cent success rate across eight different ex vivo gallbladders, operating fully autonomously without human intervention."The work marks a "milestone towards clinical deployment of autonomous surgical systems," they added that while the robot took longer to operate as compared to a human surgeon, results were comparable to an expert author Ji Woong Kim, a former postdoctoral researcher at Johns Hopkins University, said, "This work represents a major leap from prior efforts because it tackles some of the fundamental barriers to deploying autonomous surgical robots in the real world.""Our work shows that AI models can be made reliable enough for surgical autonomy -- something that once felt far-off but is now demonstrably viable," Kim said.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
Experimental surgical robot performs gallbladder procedure autonomously
Bengaluru: An experimental AI-guided robot can autonomously perform a delicate, complicated phase of a common gallbladder operation , marking a major step toward automated medical procedures, researchers said on Wednesday. Existing surgical robots are remotely controlled by surgeons. The new system uses artificial intelligence to make independent decisions and adapts to unexpected complications during operations, said Axel Krieger of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who led the research. He likened it to an autonomous vehicle that can "navigate any road, in any condition, responding intelligently to whatever it encounters." "This advancement moves us from robots that can execute specific surgical tasks to ones that truly understand surgical procedures," he said. The SRT-H robot was trained via an AI framework known as language-guided imitation learning, using videos of surgeons performing gallbladder removal surgeries on pig cadavers, the researchers reported in Science Robotics. The robot was tested on eight varying sets of pig gallbladders and livers that had been removed from the animals. Separating the gallbladder from the liver takes several minutes and involves "diverse tool use, including grabbing, clipping, and cutting - skills common in real surgical procedures," along with decision-making and adaptation, the researchers said. The pig organs and blood vessels in the tests varied widely in appearance and anatomy, "mirroring the diversity encountered in human surgeries," they said. While the robot achieved 100% accuracy in the surgeries, it took longer to perform the work than a human surgeon. Commercially available surgical robots include Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci Surgical System, which has been used in over 12 million procedures globally since receiving FDA approval in 2000. Unlike SRT-H, the da Vinci system relies entirely on human surgeons to control its movements remotely. The global surgical robotics market is approaching $10 billion annually with about 2.7 million robotic procedures performed in 2024, Baird analyst David Rescott estimated. Eventually, autonomous surgical robots could help address surgeon shortages, minimize human error, and provide consistent, high-quality care in underserved regions, the researchers said.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Robotic surgery hits 'milestone' with autonomous gallbladder removal
ST. PAUL, Minn., July 9 (UPI) -- Efforts to train robots to perform certain kinds of surgical procedures without human help have reached a "critical milestone" with successful gallbladder removal procedures in lifelike settings, researchers reported Wednesday. Medical robotics experts at Johns Hopkins and Stanford universities revealed in a new study they have "significantly" pushed the envelope on what is possible for robots to do in the operating room without human doctors at the controls, using artificial intelligence to teach them how to overcome unexpected obstacles during surgical procedures. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics, described how by using a newly developed AI platform called Surgical Robot Transformer-Hierarchy, or SRT-H, scientists were able to instruct robotic arms to perform eight ex vivo gallbladder procedures "with 100% accuracy" -- all completely autonomously with no human help. SRT-H is the latest advancement in "computer vision," a field of AI that enables robots to "see" and interpret images and videos, much like humans do. The system was shown videos of human surgeons doing the same procedure on pigs and reinforced with natural language captions describing the tasks. It also can respond to human voice commands during procedures. Most significantly, SRT-H showed an ability to self-correct when scientists threw it curve balls such as adding blood-like dyes that changed the appearance of the gallbladder and surrounding tissues. They reported it was still able to precisely perform tasks such as strategically placing clips and severing parts with scissors. The results were deemed important because they appear to move medical science closer to the goal of making AI-powered robots reliable enough for "surgical autonomy," especially in routine procedures such as gallbladder removals, which are performed hundreds of thousands of time each year. The study was led by medical roboticist Axel Krieger, an associate professor at JHU's Whiting School of Engineering, who in 2022 used an earlier AI-based system to autonomously perform the first small-incision, camera-guided surgical procedure on the soft tissue of a pig. SRT-H "represents a fundamental shift from robots that can execute specific surgical tasks to robots that understand surgical procedures," Kreiger told UPI in emailed comments. It makes several key technological advances, including eliminating the requirement that robots operate only on specially marked tissue within highly controlled environments. "The SRT-H adapts to individual anatomical features in real-time, making decisions on the fly and self-correcting when things don't go as expected -- much like a human surgeon would," he said. Also, because the system was built using the same machine learning architecture that powers ChatGPT, it allows the robot to be interactive. "it can respond to spoken commands like 'grab the gallbladder head' or corrections like 'move the left arm a bit to the left,' and actually learn from this feedback during the procedure," Krieger said. The researcher added the learning framework "trains the robot by watching videos of surgeries, similar to how medical students learn. This approach has proven robust enough that the robot performed unflappably across trials with the expertise of a skilled human surgeon, even during unexpected scenarios typical in real surgeries." Other medical robotics experts contacted by UPI agreed the results are a notable achievement for the surgical robotics field but cautioned it's still a long road until the day the machines are deemed safe enough to operate autonomously on human patients. Tamas Haidegger, a professor at Óbuda University in Budapest, Hungary, and technical lead of medical robotics research at its Antal Bejczy Center for Intelligent Robotics, said the results demonstrate that "landmark progress has emerged in autonomous surgical systems" in recent months. The case for autonomous interventions is indeed "strengthening," but are we on the brink of breakthrough in autonomous robotic surgery? Yes and no, he answered. "The employed SRT-H system presented capability for error correction and generalization, which may lead to scalability," Haidegger said. "This is major. A first baby-step." The current experiments, however, "only represent embryonic advancement in the super-complex domain of human surgery," he said, comparing the development of autonomous robotic surgery to that of self-driving cars. "In 2004, all participants failed in crossing the Mojave desert during the first DARPA challenge, yet by 2007, even the simulated urban environment was manageable for most of the systems. Yet, when this technology hit the road, significant shortcomings were revealed, starting with the incompleteness of road signs to changing weather conditions, and most importantly -- the unpredictability of other drivers. "Variability in live human surgery -- such as individual anatomy and pathology, hemorrhage, physiological tissue movement and unmodelled tissue properties -- limits immediate clinical deployment of an autonomous system." Meanwhile, a British expert who was not connected to the new study agreed that it "really highlights the art of the possible with AI and surgical robotics." Danail Stoyanov, professor of robot vision at University College London's Department of Computer Science and co-director of the UCL Hawkes Institute, told UPI the field of computer vision is making "incredible advances" for surgical video, adding that the availability of open robotic platforms for such research "make it possible to demonstrate surgical automation." He cautioned however, that "many other challenges remain to make this practical in real clinical use. Technically generalizing to clinical conditions remains very hard, and there are additional hurdles with medical device verification, safety, efficacy and, of course, cost and liability." JHU's Krieger similarly noted the current study merely provides "proof of concept. Before any clinical application, we need extensive additional testing and regulatory approval to ensure patient safety remains the top priority." That being said, the immediate next step is to "train and test the system on more types of surgeries and expand its capabilities to perform complete autonomous surgeries from start to finish. "Currently, we've demonstrated success with a lengthy phase of gallbladder removal, but we want to broaden the system's surgical repertoire" to include procedures that would benefit from the robot's "consistent precision and ability to operate in challenging conditions where human factors like fatigue or tremor might be limiting factors," Krieger said.
