BYU mechanical engineering professors are working toward surgical technology that will allow for the manufacturing of instruments so small that the size of incisions necessary to accommodate the tools can heal on their own—without sutures. The researchers say their work is inspired by a need for increasingly smaller surgical tools; the industry has reached the limit to where they can’t go any smaller with traditional designs. BYU’s team has engineered new design concepts that eliminate the need for pin joints and other parts, instead relying on the deflection inherent in origami to create motion. One such instrument is a robotically-controlled forceps so small it can pass through a hole about 3 millimeters in size. These small instruments will allow for a whole new range of surgeries to be performed—hopefully one day manipulating things as small as nerves. http://news.byu.edu/news/tiny-origa...-new-possibilities-minimally-invasive-surgery Paper: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094114X15001378
