While thinking about a robotic surgery for his prostate cancer, the first thing that Mike Ameroso asked his doctor was how many surgeries he had undertaken with the robot. Although the patient liked the idea of undergoing a minimal invasive surgery, which promises quick healing and minimum pain, he was worried about the uncommon practice.

But then the idea of "an aircraft is only as good as the pilot who flies it" occurred to Thenkurussi Kesavadas, as he and Ameroso took part on Thursday in the launch of a new Robotic Surgery Simulator that allows surgeons to practice endlessly in a field that's growing by leaps and bounds.

The newly rolled out stimulator very closely manages to approximate the touch and feel of the very widely used da Vinci robotic surgical system. It was first developed as a result of the collaboration between the Roswell Park Cancer Institute and University at Buffalo, where Mr. Kesavadas leads the Virtual Reality Lab.

Almost all prostate surgeries across the US are now performed by robots, with doctors peering via a viewfinder at a magnified image, and moving about instruments in the air in order to control the ones that are inside the patient.

Robots are continually being used in everything from weight loss surgery to operations performed on children.