Necessity is the mother of invention, a fact proven by countless bizarre products which in the end have found their use. If not long ago we were announcing the imminent appearance of military-robots on the battle field, now, the Pentagon has approved the production of medical-robots. These are complex mechanisms which are able to take the wounded out of the conflict zone, and then treat them like true surgeons.

If robots are so advanced that they can inflict human casualties but also to save lives, maybe we should send into battle only robotized units, remotely controlled by real soldiers.

The Da Vinci project proposes the involvement of remotely controlled robots into military actions and their purpose is the carrying out of different surgical operations. The system was developed in the '80, but hasn't been approved because of the large dimensions and requirement of human control. Still, that series of robots has been abandoned and it was taken by 300 hospitals which performed cancerous tumor removal, reconditioned damaged heart valves and many other surgical procedures.

Altogether, current Da Vinci models still require improvements before they are ready to be sent on the battlefield, one of those being the broadband transmissions between the robot and the control system. For the transmission of important quantities of data, it is required a wireless connection which is not currently available.

The 12 million dollar sponsorship represents an aid which will lead to the solving of the existing problems of medical-robots whose purpose doesn't have to be related solely to conflict zones. A peace time application would allow the carrying on of surgeries from great distances and the patients don't have to be army.