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A Presentation of the issue Technology is seen as a factor contributing to human well being, improving quality of life, progress against disease, discomfort. But it is also the cause of loss of lives; by enabling the creation of the most dangerous weapons. When dealing with technology we always question ourselves on how reliable or secure the technology is. Yet, we have encountered situations were the developed programs or software worked perfectly despite the amount of questions it raised. Today we are confronted to robotics. As the military looks for ways to put fewer lives at risks, they have envisioned a machine Trauma Pod built into a mobile constituting a robot surgeon that will operate soldiers if needed at the same time controlled by experimented surgeons far from the battlefield.
Eventually such IT development demands a costly investment in which the pentagon contributed giving a consortium of $ 12 million over 2 year preliminary project. The unmanned device is expected to function in at least 10 or 15 years away. Researchers are still questioning themselves about the manual communication between the surgeons and the robot, which brings us to the major problem raised by this IT development, reliability and security. The initial goal is to create a remote controlled system that can sew a mannequins severed blood vessel back together; a task that requires a lot of manual dexterity. If during the trials the robot fails to succeed then that will be a waste of money.
The robot will enable in the future that medical personnel do not get sent to front lines, which is a good step for life savings but we also have to consider the fact that it will threaten the jobs of nurses and doctors. Moreover, just imagining robotic arms performing a surgery on a soldiers heart vessel, gives the shivers. What if the information sent by the surgeon from a remote area get altered while the robot performs his actions. B IT Background of the issue In 2025 artificial intelligence The Trauma Pod Robot built into an armored vehicle is an unmanned device that would be used to give foremost care to soldiers in the battlefields, before they get evacuated to a safer place where they would get the necessary care for their wound.
The DARPA and DSO invested a sum of $ 12 million to the SRI for the development of that machine that would work as an automated medical treatment system functioning without medical personnel on the front lines of battle, and ready to assess, and stabilize wounded soldiers during critical hours. A human surgeon will conduct all the required surgical procedures from a remote location using a system of surgical manipulators. The systems actions will then be communicated wirelessly to the surgery site where the professional will observe the scene. And automated robotic systems will provide necessary support to the surgeon to conduct all phases of the operation.
As the program is not fully developed yet, and is actually projected to the year of 2050. They have produced a conceptual video, more like a simulation approaching a video game on war; to able end users visualize the product, or how it would perform its actions. On the simulation video, we are shown the different hardware the robot will be working in collaboration with such as helper robots (small robots that move the body into the trauma pod), Scanners, cyber surgery unit, vital sensors. The simulation at http: // web shows in chronological order how the trauma pod will react in real life.
If a soldier gets shot at a sensitive place, and if it is serious enough, he get carried inside the trauma pod where he get a full body scan which will then get compared to a previous scan stored in the soldiers dog tags to pinpoint the injury. Then, the cyber surgery unit, guided by a tele surgeon from a remote area, starts removing or fixing the wound. Sensors in the soldiers armor monitor vital signs throughout the procedure, and after being treated and stabilized the patient is evacuated via air to a medical facility (U Week/ research 2005). The simulation makes it appear easy which is not. However, the program will be fully functional in 2050 which we dont know how the era will be, if the world will grow more political, or personal. C Impact of the issue The stake holders involved in this issue are the SRI, developer of pioneering tele surgery systems, General dynamics robotics system, a leader in unmanned ground vehicle systems, Oak ridge National Laboratory, University of Texas, University of Washington, University of Maryland and Robotic Surgical tech Inc.
the end users the American government, more or less the Pentagon. Developing such a complex automated machine will raise political controversies, and create economic and psychological repercussions. With the war in Iraq that involved American soldiers against rebels in Iraq, where hundreds of innocents were killed, one part of the world has had a bad opinion regarding American forces. With the pentagon financing such projects, and again something directed to war, reinforces peoples views on how the Usa's thirst of control and power over the rest of the world is too much.
Many governments already judged that the US is abusing of their power, and seeing the pentagons act they will get the impression that a new battle will be held believing that the US would want to test its new toy. Moreover some countries like Iran and Iraq could feel directly targeted. And this could lead to more rebellious herds increasing of tensions in those groups which could lead to terrorism since they will judge the only means of treat they possess against the whole world and especially America. Also they would have a reason to believe that the US would want to try their robot because of what happened in 1953 With the Atomic Bomb test.
Consequently, if one political power possesses such machines, other political powers would want to own it as well. And if they all invested for the creation of their own trauma pod and that the project fails to succeed, that would have an impact on the world economy. In the other hand, if the project succeeded, it would intrigue peoples mind about how reliable it is on humans even though tested on pigs. No one would feel comfortable at the idea of a robot performing surgery on oneself. There is always the question of what if anything goes wrong?
What if some of the computer system fails? Cause we know that computer software and programs are hard to write, because they are incredibly complex. As a result, no computer system is completely fail safe. Here we are talking about a robot dealing with peoples life. If in a worst scenarios a soldier came to die who will be responsible for loss of life? - caused by the program error? Who will be held accountable?
The doctor who is controlling the robot? Or the inventor The pod in question would be portable but large enough for one patient which is not enough for a whole department of military. Because when in the battle more soldiers get hurt at the same time, the robot will not be able to take care of all of them as soon as possible. Plus there is no guaranty that the enemy camp would let such thing intact without attacking it. On the other side, this IT development has decrease the loss of skillful doctors and nurses who will not be sent to battle fields anymore. D Solutions to Problems Arising from the Issue The two main issues arising from this IT development are connected to security, reliability and politics.
To ensure the security of the machines itself and the soldiers being evacuated, the researchers should find a way of cut out any radar connection that would permit the opponents to localize the Trauma pod. The pentagon and whoever is the end user should not blame any failure on either the doctor or the inventors. Unless their act was deliberate. They should set some laws as to who should be held responsible or accountable in case of anything happening.
The researchers in the other hand should constantly test the Trauma pod. One expert should probably send to the battle field and if any failures fix the Trauma pod.
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Research essay sample on Front Lines Medical Personnel
