GW and SMU Develop Magnetic Tweezer System for Safer Robotic Surgery


March 25, 2025

Students working in Prof. Park’s lab (2018).

Students working in Prof. Park’s lab (2018).

The article “‘Magnetic tweezers’ make robotic surgery safer, more precise” highlights an exciting collaboration between Southern Methodist University (SMU) and GW Engineering on the development of a magnetic tweezer system that generates controlled magnetic fields to precisely manipulate microbots during surgical procedures. The data collected by the microbots is transmitted in real time to a haptic interface, allowing surgeons to both visualize and physically sense the remote environment. This innovation enables safer, more accurate, and fully remote non-invasive surgeries.

Here is an excerpt from the article: “Kim built the device with help from Chung Hyuk Park, who leads the Assistive Robotics and Tele-Medicine (ART-Med) Lab at the George Washington University; Yasin Cagatay Duygu, a Ph.D. candidate at SMU’s Mechanical Engineering; Xiao Zhang, a former SMU research assistant and now a system engineer at New York Air Brake; and Baijun Xie, a research assistant at George Washington University. The researchers published a study on the device in the journal Nanotechnology and Precision Engineering.”

Read the full article on SMU’s website, and explore the full research study published in Nanotechnology and Precision Engineering.