Hacking a Surgical Robot With Gesture Control

The da Vinci System has become a rather popular choice for minimally invasive surgeries throughout the medical field. Typically speaking, the robotic instrument works by translating a surgeon’s movements into smaller, more precise movements while operating.

Since these tools get disposed after 10 or so procedures, Julien Schuermans was able to get his hands on one to do something a bit different.

The hacker connected its hardware to a LeapMotion controller, enabling him to manipulate the device’s tiny forceps using only gestures. These motions are translated into instructions for four Arduino-controlled servos, which as Hackaday puts it, “engage drive pins on the wrist and rotate pulleys that move the cables that drive the instrument.”

Trust us, as awesome as this may be, you probably won’t want this bot getting too close to you just yet.