5. Applications for concentric tube robots

As RTCs have only recently emerged, the first medical applications are only just beginning to develop. The two most active research groups are those of Professor Dupont at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Dr Webster at Vanderbilt University (USA). These medical applications mainly exploit the advantages of RTCs, namely dexterity, ease of miniaturization and biocompatibility of the material used (Nitinol). Applications to date are described below, and mainly concern work that has led to the development of specific tools and/or cadaver tests.