Visionary innovation in robotic surgery is the theme of a new exhibition at the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons.

'Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots', which runs until 23 December 2009, explores the world of medical robotics - including the new Freehand, a robotic camera holder for keyhole surgery.

The exhibition features 'mini-robots' around 10mm in diameter, designed to crawl and swim inside the human body. An example is the prototype robotic camera pill, which can be swallowed by the patient; the doctor can then guide the robot by remote control, using images beamed back to a screen.

Also on display is the prototype ARES self-assembling endosurgical robot, which requires the patient to swallow up to 15 different robotic modules. Once inside the body, the modules assemble themselves into a device capable of carrying out surgical procedures.

Other exhibits include a swimming robot camera prototype, a robotic colonoscope and a digital plaster remote monitoring system.

Dr Arianna Menciassi, Associate Professor of Biomedical Robotics at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy, said: "Many mini and micro-robots have biologically inspired designs which emulate the crawling and wriggling motion of worms and insects, or the swimming motion of bacteria. We turned to biological inspiration because worms have locomotion systems suited to unstructured, slippery environments and are ideally suited for use in the human body."

Exhibition Curator Sarah Pearson noted that while robots have been used for over 50 years, they have only recently been used in medicine: "They have been designed to increase surgeons' dexterity and control, to support busy nursing staff, or to help doctors make diagnoses. Some of these are proven technologies, while others are still experimental, but we hope that the exhibition will show that robotic surgery is finally coming of age."

Freehand camera holder               Robotic camera pill