A $400,000 robot, which may hold the key to significant improvements in hip and knee replacements, is being used in research at the Kolling Institute. Known as KOBRA, or the Kolling Orthopaedic Biomechanics Robotic Arm, the new technology “The next innovations however in joint replacement surgery will be delivered through improved Sophisticated new robot driving innovation in joint surgery
Professor Bill Walter, RNSH orthopaedic surgeon and Professor of Orthopaedics and Traumatic Surgery at the University of Sydney, said the next improvements will be delivered through new technologies provided by robots like KOBRA. “We have seen that previous innovations have come through new materials and design,” he said.
biomechanics of the artificial joints.” The robot has been made possible following a collaboration between NSLHD, the University of Sydney, the Kolling Institute, the NSW Investment Boosting Business Innovation program and the RNSH Staff Specialist Trust Fund.
delivers an advanced testing facility while greatly increasing research capabilities. It is the largest of its kind in Australia and one of just two SimVitro robots in the country. Director of the Kolling’s Murray Maxwell Biomechanics Lab, Associate Professor Elizabeth Clarke, said “it represents a significant step for orthopaedic and biomedical engineering research, new surgical techniques and medical technologies. “KOBRA will be used to simulate complex human movements on joints. “This is a new way of working and very few other machines have this capability where they can test joints through a broad range of life-like manoeuvers, like hip flexing, squatting, walking and throwing. “We expect to use the robot in the testing of implants, particularly for hip and knee replacements, to gauge how the implants will function and to help ensure the movement is as life-like as possible.” The orthopaedic biomechanics
Associate Professor Elizabeth Clarke and Professor Bill Walter with the KOBRA robot
robot is also likely to assist surgeons working to repair chronic shoulder instability.
NSLHD 2022 Year in Review
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