We had the opportunity to visit one of our sponsors, West Boca Medical Center, and learn about their da Vinci surgical robot. Everyone took a turn manipulating the “fingers”. This thing is really cool.
ooo can i touch it :yikes:
A few of the surgeons and doctors got to drive around the 1251 2008 competition robot as well and from what I understand a good time was had by everyone. The people at the medical center have been great supporters of the techtigers and this was our way of thanking them. Unfortuntely becuase I am out of town visiting my parents, I was unable to attend. I really wanted to see the divinci robot in action.
Intuitive Surgical (the guys that make that bot) sponsor the team I used to work with, 114. It was cool to go to their labs and play with the system every now and then.
Don’t get too close, or a sarcastic doctor will try to stab you with it.
Cool! Our team visited some da Vinci robots this past December at Hartford Hospital. How did you guys like it?
Nice picture!
One of these came to a mall near by on display so I went and poked around for a while, and actually got to play with it for a few minutes with little rubber bands and stuff. This is one of the most realistically helpful robots I have ever seen, and it was pretty inspiring.
P.S. If you’re around me and I need emergency surgery for something… I want it to be done with this 
Looks like it was a lot of fun. I would have loved to see it working in person.
Nice pose Kenny and Koza, after all you are in the driver’s station. :rolleyes:
Did u guys also demo our robot?
They sponsor us too. Intuitive Surgical rocks! If you have a chance to get close to one of these bots, look at the geometry of it and how they deal with their cables. It is quite impressive. And look at how they actuate the grippers.
This year and last year when we were at their annual open house, my brother had fun with the machine. Last year, he shot the rubber bands in the little demo device and a piece of paper with the robot. This year, he convinced the engineers to lend him a pencil, and wrote with it using the bot. Writing is quite hard because there is no force feedback to let you know when you are pushing down on the paper too hard and about to break the graphite, or not touching it at all.
http://picasaweb.google.com/971.FIRST/2008MayIntuitiveTour/photo#5201530622517716050
http://picasaweb.google.com/971.FIRST/2007MayIntuitiveTour/photo#5070226892226971970
The surgeons who operate the surgery robot had the opportunity to drive our competition bot after a quick demo, I am proud to say that the Tech Tigers left their mark on West Boca Medical Center (although it was due to the surgeons bashing into the walls with out bot)