At IFPEX 2011, the Tokyo Institute of Technology demonstrate their latest Surgical Robot featuring the first Pneumatic force feedback system.
Working on the Slave/Master principal, where a doctor can remotely operate a patient controlling a robot located in another room or in another country. The Tokyo Institute of Technology Robot features a unique approach by offering a force feedback setting via pneumatic actuators for invasive surgery.
The choice of pneumatic actuators is actually very smart, cheap to maintain, cheap to build and needing no electronics within the robot arms, these pneumatic actuators are not only very precise but also easy to sterilize and perfect for complicated intrusive operations since all electronics are placed far away from the patient.