r/oddlysatisfying • u/ShallowAstronaut • 4d ago

Performing surgery on a grape to demonstrate the precision of the machine

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u/Drag0nz_Wrath13 4d ago

Having been apart of budget and fiscal meetings for hospitals, I know that on average each arm of the robot costs approx $150k. They are replaced it felt like weekly (several arms had different functions and were swapped out) and the biggest perpetrator was actually the cleaning/sterilization process. These arms are so delicate that the pressure washing process they go through would break them often.

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u/Abundance144 4d ago

Each arm has a certain number of uses regardless of how it's sterilized. If you ever get a chance to open one of these up you'll see very fine wires and machinery that cannot hold up to continuous use. Whether that's by design or simply a limitation our current level of product and materials, I do not know.

Imagine having a car with an axel that's the thickness of a sharpie. The car will run, and the manufacturer will offer you a five mile warranty. But in the case of the robot, the "axel" is that thickness due to the necessity of the size of the cavity that it's designed to work in.

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u/Radiant_Actuary7325 4d ago

That's a new one. Sounds like a pain to deal with.