Acrobot Company Ltd is a spin-off of Imperial College London, and they have recently received $5.3 million worth of B round financing in order to help them perfect the robotic-assisted partial knee replacement surgical procedure as soon as possible. This delicate procedure will utilize a couple of Acrobot Company’s main products – the surgical planning software and its crown jewel, the robotic arm known as the Acrobot Active Constraint System. According to Acrobot, this product is vastly different from other surgical navigation systems since it provides tooling for soft tissue management while enabling a minimally invasive surgical approach.

The Active Constraint Robot is a mechanical wonder that brings the concept of accuracy to the operating theater, where the expression Active Constraint is used to describe the materialization of a control technology that has been applied to a motorized programmable device. The tool mounted on the device itself is restricted by both hardware and software within a certain volume in space. While it does not move autonomously, it could be programmed to do so which adds to its flexibility in helping out a surgeon during an operation. The Acrobot can also react to the actions of the surgeon holding a handle attached to the device. In addition, it aids motion whenever the surgeon is moving the tool within an allowed spatial volume while restricting motion outside of this perimeter.

To date, this technology has seen successful demonstrations at clinical trials, so logic dictates that further funding will be able to see an even better solution that will be worked out in the future. Research shows that the Acrobot system has consistently and accurately enabled the positioning of a prosthetic implant according to a surgical plan, where there is a 100% track record of implants made within 2° of a desired orientation whereas 6 out of 15 conventional cases were implanted with this accuracy.

Source: Medgadget