Instead of operating through the usual 8- to 12-inch incision, the surgeons operated through two half-inch trocars inserted between the ribs, which eliminates the necessity for cracking these ribs, and a two-inch chest incision. The procedure, which took only three-and-a- half hours, was performed without stopping the patient's heart, the usual practice in coronary bypass surgery.

By using force-reflection techniques, developed in other fields of telemanipulation, the surgeon can feel the (amplified) force which is exerted on the tissue by the instruments. To realize a applicable force-reflection, special force sensors will be developed, which are small enough to fit within a conventional grasping instrument and can be safely used within the human body.