Science Fiction reaches the operating theatre.

Since developing the ERM robot, whose patent was bought by the Spanish firm SENER which now sells it all over the world, the UMA group doing research into Medical Robotics has started work on a new prototype. This time they are working in collaboration with the Miguel Hernández University in Alicante and the Cartif Technological centre. The prototype looks like an articulated worm which is inserted into the patient and which then makes its way to the area affected by illness. Once there, the worm casts off its "˜head'- really another abdominal microrobot- that can move within tiny spaces either independently or under external control. It is this latter device that will be developed at the University of Malaga and equipped with all the instruments necessary to carry out surgery.