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Collaboration between Imperial College Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Surgery led to the development of active constraint robot solutions which augment surgeon skills so that joint replacement components are implanted accurately and successfully. This led to the founding of Acrobot to develop innovative surgical technologies. Acrobot was acquired by Stanmore Implants Worldwide in 2010. An orthopaedic stereotaxic instrument, based on Imperial research, obtained US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance in 2013. This has led to Mako-Surgical purchasing Stanmore Implants Acrobot technology in April 2013.
The Cybernetics team at the University of Reading works at the frontier of human-machine interaction. The group carries out research on therapy and human enhancement in collaboration with medical professionals, to research new therapeutic treatments for patients with paralysis. Our work has led to the first human implantation of BrainGate, an intelligent deep brain stimulator, and the culturing of neurons within a robot body. Our work has been used by neurosurgeons in experimental human trials with the aim to enhance the standard of living of paralysed individuals. This ground breaking, and sometimes controversial work, has sparked widespread discussion and debate in the public sphere, within the media and at the government level, on the use of machines to enhance humans and vice versa.