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The History of Robotic Surgery

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Robotics in Genitourinary Surgery

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Abstract

The rise of digital, intelligent technologies is just beginning to have the widespread and projected paradigm shifting effect that many futurists have predicted. The history of robots and mechanical methods of emulating our human activity began early in humanities civilization, perhaps with the Antikythera mechanism that was discovered in a ship wreck off the shores of the Greek island of the same name. This mechanism contained 30 interlocking gears that could calculate accurately the Sun, moon, eclipses, planetary locations and the dates of Olympiads. This represents some of the detailed history of the mechanisms of the past that have formed the foundation of current robotic surgery. It traces in some detail the foundations of this fascinating process of mechanizing human work, including that of surgery.

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  1. Carolina Urology Associates, Southeast Urology, Whiteville, NC, USA

    Michael E. Moran

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  1. Michael E. Moran
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  1. Department of Urology Comprehensive Cancer Center Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Ashok K. Hemal

  2. Vattikuti Urology Institute, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI, USA

    Mani Menon

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Moran, M.E. (2018). The History of Robotic Surgery. In: Hemal, A., Menon, M. (eds) Robotics in Genitourinary Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20645-5_1

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