Funded by a NSF grant, seven identical Raven II open source surgical robots using open source software (ROS), will be placed in seven universities. Four more universities are in line waiting to get their own Raven II robots.

“These [seven or eleven universities] are leading labs in the nation in the field of surgical robotics, and with everyone working on the same platform we can more easily share new developments and innovations.”

“We decided to follow an open-source model, because if all of these labs have a common research platform for doing robotic surgery, the whole field will be able to advance more quickly.”

The lock that Intuitive Surgical has had with their patented da Vinci Surgical System may be threatened by the results of this new endeavor.