So strap in... I'm giving a top level assessment of the 21 current Soft Tissue surgical robots that are competing with the current champion - the daVinci Xi. Most are already doing clinical work, and the others are right on the edge of launch. You may be forgiven if at some point this starts to feel like "Haven't I just seen that one." So let's jump in.
1) Asensus Senhance
Originally from a set of EU Energy department patents, it was originally developed as ALF-X by an Italian Pharma company called SOFAR. It was later bought by the US company Transenterix and morphed into the name of the Senhance system. Later after funding struggles the company worked more towards digital surgery and morphed into Asensus. Senhance has always used the same paradigm - which was to "Digitise" laparoscopic surgery. Using large modular arms - that create a software driven dynamic pivot point. Driven by a "laparoscopic" handled console - which used the same backwards movements (up = down, down = up, left = right, right =left) to mimic laparoscopy. Which as it turns out is not that popular in robotics. People want the "intuitive" style of mapping your hand movements to instrument tips. Senhance has been around a long time but is now winding down as they prepare for their next version of robot (below). Senhance also struggled as it used straight lap style instruments - and an articulated version of some of the instruments came as "too little - too late." (Hint - no one wants articulated instruments - they buy robots for wrists). Nice try at the vision based "helpful" digital surgery but the big size, straight instruments and backwards lap mimicking controls did not make it a fan favourite.
2) Asensus LUNA
