Intuitive Surgical

Today I had the pleasure of visiting Intuitive Surgical in Sunnyvale for an annual robot "mock" competition (Intuitive Surgical Robonanza) hosted by the company for all of the FRC teams they sponsor-- this is my second year going! We played a scaled down version of 2014 FRC's Aerial Assist.

I actually visited Intuitive Surgical in the fall last year for an Open House. The company invited FRC teams to explore their surgical engineering products, which encompass human-operated machines that wirelessly connect to a "robot" with surgical arms and function to perform minimally invasive surgery (the term robot used loosely, as it isn't autonomous). Imagine wearing rings on your fingers and having a set of arms mimic the exact movements of your hands-- whether they are incising, sewing, or suturing-- on a robot several feet away:

No, I didn't take this photo and it looks incredibly staged, but technology is seriously incredible. This is the da Vinci model.  (1)

I even got to operate one of the da Vinci surgery systems (not on an actual person, of course) during the Open House. The da Vinci is beyond impressive, with its high-defintion 3D imagery and interactivity. I'd say it's definitely one of my favorite companies in the Bay Area, combining two things I enjoy-- human anatomy and engineering.

While going to the bathroom I also saw this giant book in the lobby with antique-looking anatomy sketches, so I had to take a picture:

And another picture of the lobby, just because:

Aaaaaand I promise I'll write more frequently! I'm going to Alaska in less than 72 hours so that'll be a break from the usual schedule of interning-SAT-robotics madness.