This week Raven, the mobile surgical robot developed by the University of Washington, leaves for the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

For 12 days the Raven will be put through its paces in an underwater capsule that mimics conditions in a space shuttle. Surgeons back in Seattle will guide its movements. The 12th NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) test will take place May 7 to 18 off the coast of Florida.
During the mission, four crew members will assemble the robot and perform experiments. The two larger-than-life black robotic arms will use surgical instruments to suture a piece of rubber and move blocks from one spindle to another on what looks like a delicate children's toy.

Raven was built over the past five years in the UW's BioRobotics Lab, co-directed by professor Blake Hannaford and research associate professor Jacob Rosen in the department of electrical engineering, with partners in the UW's department of surgery. The da Vinci surgical robot, which is used at the UW and elsewhere, weighs nearly a half-ton. Raven weighs only 50 pounds.
NASA will test the robot's suitability for a mission to space, where it could perform emergency surgery without requiring a surgeon to be onboard.
Via the University of Washington news.