Brain Surgery Robot Running Linux

hherb writes "Singapore has developed a robotic brain surgeon. The interesting bit: based on a Linux platform. Well, what else? Who in his right mind would like to have his brain fondled by a MS product?"

neither ms nor linux

[guacamolefoo]

I only want a human fondling my brain, thank you.

GF.

Re:neither ms nor linux

[nervlord1]

How is a human more reliable than a computer? I'd trust a computer more. A computer doesn't have a bad day. A computer does not come to work drunk, a computer is either programmed bad, or has a hardware failure, and enough testing can severly reduce that

Dunno

[smittyoneeach]

If you were having your wetware fondled, you'd probably care more about the track record of the application than the OS.
Linux != crashproof, as my recent www.linuxfromscratch.org efforts demonstrated.
Great to see Linux proliferating, sad to see it used for a completely gratuitous bashing.

It is not Linux...

[kitsook]

... matters most. It is the software that do the drilling, cutting etc.

From the article:
The speed and precision hinge on the software program written by researchers at NTU's department of mechanical and production engineering.

Unm

[mcc]

I am not sure how comfortable with this i am, not becuase i at all think linux is prone to fail but becuase linux is capable of failing. Kernel panics still happen, like, once in a billion years. Linux just never struck me as an OS you need when, like, it is absolutely essential that absolutely nothing go wrong ever. Like when you are running some kind of control system for an airplane, or controlling a robot drilling holes in people's skulls. I don't think linux or even bsd would be a great choice in those cases, though i sure as hell don't think windows should even be considered given their track record in such situations [nd.edu].

Aren't there any OSes about at the moment that are like all redundant and correctness-proven and stuff, like with NASA-like failure margins? Wouldn't it be better to be using those instead?

Is this reasonable of me to say?

Funny thing is ..

[Anonymous Coward]

I find it odd that even though the story has nothing to do with microsoft the company still gets mentioned. Will the linux community ever get over their penis envy of the more successful counterpart? I doubt it.

Re:WooHoo

[TechnoVooDooDaddy]

yeah, Blue Screen of Death would be really appropriately named then...

Re:Here is why this is NOT good

[Queuetue]

You should probably build yourself a minimal specialized and embedded linux installation on custom hardware, and see how different reality is from how you portray it. You'd see right away that all linux does for you is handle the gruntwork. You still need some pretty bright people in the loop, but they don't have to work 2 years just to get the thing bootstrapping itself.

If you don't want to, that's fine, but please preface comments with "I don't really know anything about this, but I thought I'd open my mouth anyway."

Re: You confuse safety with uninterrupted operat'n

[Telcontar]

If the OS with the program driving the robot "crashes", the robot will certainly turn itself off. (It is unimaginable that such a product would be designed otherwise.) So nothing dangerous will happen, the operation will just be delayed by a minute until the computer is re-booted.

Having said that, one might go a different route and produce all the software needed (including the driver itself) using formal methods, if you want 100.00% safety (minus epsilon for human errors in the formal requirement descriptions).

The interesting bit?

[dmauer]

Okay, maybe I'm just a nut.

But when someone goes and builds a robot that performs brain surgery (or even, as in this case, parts of brain surgery), how on earth is "The Interesting Part" that it runs Linux?! I, personally, would suppose that the interesting part is that it Does Brain Surgery.

"Hey, I just designed a program that can perfectly predict storm patterns across north america a year in advance!"
"Yeah, well, if it runs on Microsoft, go tell someone who cares."

-d

Re:Slightly off-topic

[IWantMoreSpamPlease]

I agree, but when I drive, I am placing my life in my hands, and my skills. Considering the types of cars I drive (see my webpage for more info) I have the skills to avoid getting killed while driving.

Placing my life (or my eyes) in someone elses hands...that's a different matter entirely. And to do so with the full knowledge they're using a MS product...well I don't have a deathwish yet ;-)

Re:WooHoo

[rmadmin]

How about a kernel panic. Linux isn't 100%. I'd trust BSD* more than Linux. And if we are going to play that game, I'd probalby trust Solaris more than all of them. Just my 2 cents.

new Linux feature: skewed perspective

[esquimaux]

Pardon me, but wouldn't the "interesting bit" be that it's a frickin' SIX-LEGGED ROBOTIC BRAIN SURGEON?

Re:neither ms nor linux

[JimmyGulp]

not some hacked code

Hacked code? Sure, I wouldn't like my code to try and remove a lump from my head, but from reading the article (go on, read it, it'll be worth your while), I don't think this is 'hacked code', more, actual code, thats been tested, over and over and over and (get the point yet?) over.

As the article states, this has been tested on animals, and cadavers (already dead people). If given the option, I would probably go with the machine, with a surgeon there to make sure the machine doesn't break, and if it does, to step in.

Although, I'd rather not have a lump in my head to begin with.

that might not like a video driver resolution

What? Are you having problems with Quake or something? The code would have no problems with the resolution, the windowmanager would simply make the window bigger than the screen, then its the surgeons / techs problem to sort out. I would hope that they'd at least run the simulation first to make sure they can see everything is working.