Unbeknownst to us, a team of forensic pathologists just an hours drive away at the University of Bern in Switzerland are working on making a robot part of their standard autopsy procedure. The team has pioneered virtual autopsies or virtopsies, which use non-invasive imaging of a body instead of the radical post-mortem surgery typically used to determine cause of death. This has a long list of advantages, including mitigating the risk of overlooking something in what is now a one-shot investigation with no chance for re-evaluation, replacing the current practice of verbal descriptions prone to misinterpretation with a more reliable and standardized method, and allowing for a more tactful approach relying on modern 3D imaging and needle biopsies, leaving the body intact.
Virtobot can help with much of this process: By precisely moving a scanner building up an accurate 3D picture, or by performing an accurate needle biopsy during a live CT-scan without the need to expose pathologists to any radiation. Virtobot has already been used in 52 real cases, including 26 road deaths, 10 by impacts from a blunt object, six knifings, five shootings, and two throttlings.