Robotic Arm Performs Colonoscopy to Detect Bowel Cancer

A robotic arm with a scalpel. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A robotic arm with a scalpel. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
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Robotic Arm Performs Colonoscopy to Detect Bowel Cancer

A robotic arm with a scalpel. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A robotic arm with a scalpel. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Scientists have devised a new AI-powered robotic arm equipped with a probe and a magnet that can perform 'less painful' colonoscopies to check for bowel cancer by using the magnet to externally steer a camera probe through the gut, The Daily Mail reported. The system developed by a team from Leeds University could prove to be the first major update in decades to the procedure, which is used some 100,000 times each year in the UK. In a colonoscopy, a camera-ended probe is passed through the rectum and colon to hunt for and remove abnormalities and take tissue samples.

The examination can be uncomfortable for the patient and requires highly skilled doctors to be performed, limiting the availability of the procedure. The artificially intelligent system, however, will aid less experienced doctors and nurses in safely guiding the probe to precise locations within the colon. Patient trials using the system could begin as early as next year.

"Colonoscopy gives doctors a window into the world hidden deep inside the human body and it provides a vital role in the screening of diseases such as colorectal cancer. But the technology has remained relatively unchanged for decades," said author Pietro Valdastri of Leeds University.

"What we have developed is a system that is easier for doctors or nurses to operate and is less painful for patients. It marks an important step in the move to make colonoscopy much more widely available, essential if colorectal cancer is to be identified early," Valdastri added.

According to Professor Valdastri and his colleagues, the new procedure has been designed to be easier to administer, thereby increasing the number of providers who can perform the procedure and, accordingly, patient access to colonoscopies. A doctor or nurse would still need to be on hand to make clinical decisions, but the demanding task of guiding the probe would be offloaded to the robotic system.

The set-up still uses an endoscopic probe, as with traditional colonoscopies, but the team's new version is smaller and is guided after insertion not by a doctor or nurse pushing the colonoscope, but using a magnet held over the patient by the robot. As the arm moves around the patient, it maneuvers the capsule, which also contains tiny magnets along with it.



Trump Offers Support to Musk's Car Company in a Surprising Post as Tesla Stock Plunges

Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images/File Photo
Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images/File Photo
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Trump Offers Support to Musk's Car Company in a Surprising Post as Tesla Stock Plunges

Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images/File Photo
Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images/File Photo

President Donald Trump took to social media Thursday morning to support Elon Musk's car company, a startling development given their bitter public feud.

”I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, Reuters reported.

The post wasn't enough to help Tesla's stock, which fell sharply after the company reported another quarter of lackluster financial results and Musk warned of some potentially “rough quarters” into next year. At midday, the stock was down around 9%.

Late Wednesday, Tesla said revenue fell 12% and profit dropped 16% in the April-June quarter. Many prospective buyers have been turned off by Musk’s foray into right-wing politics, and the competition has ramped up in key markets such as Europe and China.

Investors have been unnerved by Musk's social media spat with the president because Trump has threatened to retaliate by ending government contracts and breaks for Musk's various businesses, including Tesla.

But Trump struck a starkly different tone Thursday morning.

“Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon’s companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the US Government. This is not so!" Trump wrote. “The better they do, the better the USA does, and that’s good for all of us.”

After Trump's massive budget bill passed earlier this month, Tesla faces the loss of the $7,500 EV tax credit and stands to make much less money from selling regulatory credits to other automakers. Trump’s tariffs on countries including China and Mexico will also cost Tesla hundreds of millions of dollars, the company said on its earnings call.

Musk has blasted the budget bill on his own social media platform X for adding to US debt at a time when it is already too large. The Tesla CEO has called the budget pushed by the president a “disgusting abomination” and has threatened to form a new political party.

On Wednesday's call, Musk said the electric vehicle maker will face “a few rough quarters” as it moves into a future focused less on selling cars and more on offering people rides in self-driving cars. He also talked up the company's business making humanoid robotics. But he acknowledged those businesses are a ways off from contributing to Tesla’s bottom line.

Tesla began a rollout in June of its paid robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, and hopes to introduce the driverless cabs in several other cities soon. Musk told analysts that the service will be available to probably “half of the population of the US by the end of the year — that’s at least our goal, subject to regulatory approvals.”

“We’re in this weird transition period where we’ll lose a lot of incentives in the US,” Musk said, adding that Tesla “probably could have a few rough quarters” ahead. He added, though, “Once you get to autonomy at scale in the second half of next year, certainly by the end of next year, I would be surprised if Tesla’s economics are not very compelling.”