The beginnings of robotic surgery--from the roots up to the da Vinci telemanipulator system

The history of the robotic surgery is only 22 years old. The article gives a short overview regarding the history of robotics, the surgical robots, the da Vinci telemanipulator system and some further commercial and experimental surgical robotic surgical simulation is also emphasized. Robotic surgery has its own place within the following concepts: 1. computer assisted surgery (CAS), 2. computer integrated surgery (CIS), 3. surgical automation, 4. surgical system integration and 5. artificial intelligence (AI). At the end of the paper there are some important sources of informations regarding robotic surgery.