manipulators is of the type used for pick-and-place robots, allowing the manipulators full freedom of motion in space. This means that the surgeon can also choose the optimal direction of approach for any organ, rather than having to move the patient to suit the machine. Of course the manipulators also provide force feedback through the overhead cable boom. In addition to having a large degree of freedom, the Sofie slave is also quite compact when compared to the generation of surgical robots in current use. Whereas the current generation requires a large robot arm installation next to the surgical table, the slave is small enough to be clamped onto the surgical bed itself. This means that the slave moves with the bed when the surgical table is moved or adjusted and doesn't have to be adjusted separately for the new position of the table in the operating room. Commercial advantages and exploitation Another advantage to the design of Sofie is that its construction is cheaper than that of the previous generation of robot. Although there is no notion yet of what a Sofie-like robot would cost in a commercial offering, it is already clear that the design allows for a robot that costs substantially less than the €1,000,000 average of the da Vinci Surgical System. As of October 2010, dr.ir. Van den Bedem is investigating the possibilities for commercial exploitation of the basic design. The expectation however, is that any robot could only be available in the market by 2016 at the earliest. External links References Surgical robots