The future of telesurgery may involve the use of robotic assistants to replace human assistants. The main motivator behind the idea is that robotic assistants can be cost-effective and can deliver telesurgery services over distance. Turner (1996) evaluated twelve patients undergoing laparoscopic bladder neck suspension. Six of the procedures used a human assistant,another six used a robot arm to hold and maneuver the laparoscopeand camera. In each case, use of the robot arm improved steadiness and
the clarity of the picture compared to use of a human arm.