What is the Da Vinci Surgical System?
The Da Vinci Surgical System is a large purpose-built robot controlled by a surgeon that performs minimally invasive surgical procedures on patients. The system incorporates an ergonomically designed surgeon 's console, a patient-side module with four interactive robotic arms, each with interchangeable surgical instruments and a 3-dimensional endoscopic vision system. Powered by high-tech supercomputers, the surgeon 's hand movements are scaled, filtered and then converted into precise movements of the surgical attachments. The designers of the system are a team of doctors, engineers and biomedical engineers at a company called Intuitive Surgical.
The motivation that these designers had was to develop a surgical technique that would be minimally traumatic for patients and one that would speed up recovery time.
Figure 1: The Da Vinci Surgical System showing the surgeon 's console and the patient-side module.
The Industry
The Da Vinci robot is part of the Biomedical Engineering industry. The industry is concerned with the application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field. It combines expertise from medical and engineering disciplines to improve healthcare systems. The industry is very innovative and most universities now offer training in biomedical engineering. This is because it has always been a highly specialised field and required a designer to have both medical and engineering training and experience.
Research and development is a very important aspect of this industry and it is very draining on a company 's funds. Great emphasis is also placed on product placement and marketing. Though these products are usually marketed towards industry professionals such as doctors and hospital management.
The physical location and layout of the enterprise
The company is located in the U.S.A in California.
Figure 2: The company headquarters
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