London, UK — Panda Surgical, developer of handheld robots for minimally invasive neurosurgery, today announced it has been awarded £377,967 by Innovate UK as part of the Biomedical Catalyst. This funding supports an 18-month collaboration with University College London Hospitals (UCLH) to develop a first-of-its-kind “co-pilot” designed to help neurosurgeons navigate and maintain orientation during robotic procedures.
The project addresses one of the persistent challenges in surgery: maintaining orientation. Throughout a procedure, surgeons must constantly localise themselves in relation to critical anatomy to operate safely and precisely. Existing navigation workflows place much of that burden on the surgeon, increasing their mental workload. This cognitive load can make it harder to maintain continuous awareness of the surgical field, increasing the risk of overlooking important details or missing subtle changes during a procedure. Panda Surgical's AI co-pilot aims to provide navigational support, freeing the surgeon to concentrate on their surgical tasks. Because the co-pilot is built around common navigation workflows, it complements the Panda Surgical's existing robotic platform across a wide range of procedures.