机器人有望接管手术室（节选）

    这类手术机器人当中最受欢迎的，也是弗兰克•克莱门特去年秋天在美国西雅图的瑞典医疗中心（Swedish Medical Center）接受手术时所用的，就是达芬奇外科手术机器人（da Vinci）。它的专利所有者及生产商均为直觉外科公司（Intuitive Surgical）。这是一家公开上市的硅谷企业，公开的营业收入为17.6亿美元，较2010年增长了24%。这套设备的开发耗资高达230万美元，整套系统包括控制台、机器人和一台用来连接各部分的高大的服务器支架。达芬奇机器人在许多方面更感觉就像是它所在领域内的iPhone——外科医生们纷纷表示，它使用简单，设计大方。此外，就像iPhone的出产商苹果公司（Apple）一样，直觉外科公司已经构建出一种封闭式的商业模式：相关软件及硬件均为专利技术，并且由公司全面监控着达芬奇生产线的方方面面，从而为“封闭式操作系统”一词赋予了新的含义。

    尽管直觉外科公司在同类市场上占据主导地位【仅马约诊所（Mayo Clinic）一家就配备了7台达芬奇外科手术系统】，其成功却远非十拿九稳。另一家新近成立的机器人企业出产的机器人为将来的手术室提供了另一种具有竞争力的选择。这款由初创企业应用灵巧公司（Applied Dexterity）制造的机器人Raven是一台体积更小、价格更低廉的实验性机械。它基于开源架构设计而成，因而易于遭到黑客攻击，相较之下更像是谷歌公司（Google）为手机开发的安卓（Android）操作平台。换言之，直觉外科公司所采用的创新技术多为公司内部成果，而Raven则可由几乎任何人来开发、改进和研究。两种模式都在推动着这一领域进入一个前人无从想像的地带。关于外科手术的未来，有道价值500亿美元的问题：届时，手术室会有地方容纳得下一种以上的机器人吗？(财富中文网)

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    译者：薄锦

    The most popular of such surgical robots -- the one used on Frank Clement during his operation last fall at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle -- is the da Vinci. Patented and manufactured by Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) -- a publicly held Silicon Valley--based company that posted revenue of $1.76 billion, a 24% increase over 2010 -- the system costs up to $2.3 million. It includes the console, the robot, and a tall server bay that connects them. It is, in more ways than one, the iPhone of its category: Surgeons say it is easy to use and elegantly designed. And like iPhone maker Apple (AAPL), Intuitive has developed a closed model: Its software and hardware are proprietary, and the company controls all aspects of the da Vinci's production, bringing new meaning to the term "closed operating system."

    Despite its dominant position (Mayo Clinic alone has seven machines), its success is far from assured. Another, just-formed robotics company's robot offers a competing vision of what might be possible in the operating room of tomorrow. Made by Applied Dexterity, a startup, and called the Raven, it is a smaller, cheaper experimental machine built on an open-source model, which makes it hackable, and more like Google's (GOOG) Android platform for mobile phones. Put another way, innovation at Intuitive tends to come from within the company, while nearly anyone can invent, add to, and study the Raven. Both models are pushing the field into previously unimagined territory. The $50 billion question for the future of surgery: Will there be (operating) room for more than one kind of robot?