Exploring Medical Robots

When it comes to medical robots, many people will think of the Da Vinci robot. The Da Vinci robot, produced by Intuitive Surgical in the United States, has undergone five generations of development and has completed over 7 million surgeries, holding an absolute monopoly in the industry and representing medical robots. However, medical robots are not limited to the Da Vinci robot; it broadly refers to robots used in surgical, rehabilitation, and diagnostic scenarios, including surgical robots, rehabilitation robots, assistive robots, and medical service robots. Among them, surgical robots, like the Da Vinci robot, are controlled by surgeons and can perform minimally invasive surgeries and surgical imaging guidance, and can be further subdivided into surgical robots, orthopedic robots, interventional robots, and endoscopic robots; rehabilitation robots can assist human movement for limb or neurological rehabilitation, including upper and lower limb rehabilitation robots, exoskeleton robots, prosthetic robots, and nursing robots; assistive robots can play a supportive role in the medical process, such as capsule robots, dispensing robots, and telemedicine robots; medical service robots provide non-treatment auxiliary services, reducing repetitive labor for medical staff, such as companion robots, transport robots, disinfection robots, and medical logistics robots.

The future direction of medical devices is intelligence, and medical robots integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines such as medicine, mechanics, control, information, and bionics, representing the ultimate direction of the intelligence of medical devices. So, what key technologies are employed in medical robots? The human body has a complex structure, including limbs, sensory systems, and key parts like the cerebellum and brain. Correspondingly, medical robot technology also simulates these structures, equipping mechanical actuators, sensors, motion control systems, and decision-making systems. The research and development of key technologies also revolve around these four aspects.

First is the design of advanced robotic mechanisms. The mechanism, as the execution system of the robot, is the basis for high-precision and high-stability operations, including mechanism configuration, modular design, joint design, and bionic mechanism design. For example, the execution mechanism of surgical robots not only needs to meet expected size requirements but also needs to integrate perception and interaction to achieve various complex functions. Second is intelligent perception technology. Perception is the input and starting point of intelligence and is the basis for artificial intelligence to function. Medical robots need to be equipped with various sensors, combined with information processing technology, to perceive the environment and human state in real time. For example, using visual sensors to identify and track target tissues, and analyzing pathological images; using force sensors to perceive the interaction force between humans and machines. Third is robot control technology. Control is the bridge for artificial intelligence to function, enabling medical robots to have high precision and high stability in motion capabilities through intelligent motion control of the execution system, dynamic error compensation, and autonomous obstacle avoidance, ensuring precise execution of the operator’s instructions and ultimately achieving complex intelligent behaviors. Fourth is artificial intelligence technology. Medical robots are important carriers of embodied intelligence, using AI multimodal large models and deep learning, machine learning, and other artificial intelligence technologies to perform complex decision-making calculations, continuously learning and optimizing the most reasonable instructions, thereby efficiently commanding and controlling execution systems. For example, in emergencies, medical robots can make autonomous decisions and quickly adjust surgical strategies.

Moreover, the application of medical robots is related to the life and health of the people, making safety and reliability crucial. Their key technologies also involve human-machine collaboration, human-machine interaction, master-slave operation, and reliability technology. The continuous progress and improvement of these technologies will greatly enhance the performance of medical robots, ensuring that their applications in the medical field are safer, more reliable, and more efficient.

Currently, the shortage of medical resources in our country remains prominent, and the increasing trend of population aging has further amplified the public’s demand for high-quality medical services. Medical robots, as a deepening application of artificial intelligence in the medical field, can effectively assist doctors in a series of medical diagnoses and auxiliary treatments, demonstrating significant technological advantages in clinical practice.

Medical robots, especially in the surgical field, show particularly significant advantages. Surgical robots can eliminate hand tremors, achieving precision and minimally invasive surgery, enabling surgical planning and precise positioning, and providing high-definition surgical vision, particularly advantageous in microsurgeries such as ophthalmology and neurosurgery. Additionally, compared to traditional open surgeries and laparoscopic surgeries, robot-assisted surgeries demonstrate advantages such as smaller incisions, lower infection rates, and faster recovery, enhancing clinicians’ ability to handle complex surgeries.

Rehabilitation robots are regarded as “wearable devices” in special environments, capable of assisting with walking, rehabilitation therapy, and reducing labor intensity. They exhibit good motion consistency, ensuring the intensity, effectiveness, and precision of rehabilitation training. They can provide personalized training programs and quantitative evaluations based on the patient’s degree of injury and rehabilitation, and can improve the effectiveness of patient rehabilitation training based on human-machine interaction control.

The emergence of assistive robots enriches the content of medical services. They can provide patients with integrated services before, during, and after diagnosis, meeting various needs in the medical process. Especially with the development of high-quality network systems, medical experts in developed regions like Beijing and Shanghai can perform surgeries remotely using telemedicine robots, allowing the public to enjoy high-quality medical resources “at their doorstep.”

Moreover, medical service robots can replace human labor, completing tasks such as disinfection, medical consumable management, and transportation for extended periods, while also possessing functions like full-process tracking and optimized management systems. Particularly in the face of major public health emergencies, they demonstrate extraordinary application value. A large number of robots for intelligent delivery, medical monitoring, and disinfection transportation have rushed to the front lines of epidemic prevention, playing an important role in reducing personnel cross-infection and enhancing treatment efficiency.

It can be said that the popularization of medical robots is reshaping the medical field, playing an irreplaceable role in people’s livelihoods and welfare. They deeply participate in the medical process in a precise and efficient manner, greatly enhancing the effectiveness of medical services and strongly promoting the progress of Healthy China and precision medicine.

Over the years, the country has intensively launched a series of policy documents related to the development of the medical robot industry, including the “12th Five-Year Plan” proposing robot medical services, the 2016 State Council issuing the “Healthy China 2030” planning outline, and in 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other seven departments jointly issuing the “Implementation Opinions on Promoting Future Industrial Innovation Development,” providing a favorable environment for the development of high-end medical equipment represented by medical robots. However, medical robots still face challenges such as complex structures and high technical thresholds. Compared to developed countries abroad, the penetration rate of medical robots in our country is relatively low, and products still have shortcomings in terms of technology, performance, and reliability. Therefore, it is necessary to increase research and development investment and enhance independent innovation capabilities to achieve sustainable and healthy development of the industry.

From the perspective of the medical robot industrial chain, its upstream core components include servo motors, reducers, sensors, controllers, and system integration. Currently, the most critical high-end servo motors, reducers, and controllers among these core components still rely heavily on imports, which restricts the independent development of the medical robot industry in our country to some extent. Therefore, adhering to independent innovation and achieving the localization of core components are important guarantees for sustainable industrial development; the midstream consists of medical robot whole machine manufacturing enterprises, and overall, the number of rehabilitation robots and assistive robots in our country is relatively high; the downstream application fields cover various aspects such as surgical operations, hospital services, assistance for the disabled, rehabilitation, and home care. Limited by technological and economic development, as well as the particularity of the medical industry, most existing medical robots still require human intervention, have low levels of intelligence, and relatively single functions. Although they are called “robots,” there is still a long way to go before entering the intelligent era where they can independently perform surgeries or assist in rehabilitation. Various advanced mechanisms, intelligent perception, safe interaction, and telemedicine remain hot research topics for future medical robots, especially the integration of artificial intelligence technology to achieve embodied intelligence is an important research direction for the application and development of medical robots.

Specifically, in the face of the complex structure of the human body, breakthroughs are needed in the design of small-scale actuators that couple rigidity and flexibility, particularly in emerging sub-fields such as single-port laparoscopic surgical robots, capsule robots, targeted nano robots, and flexible robots; in response to the need for intelligent control of human-machine collaboration, it is necessary to enhance the robot’s intelligent perception and cognitive abilities through multi-dimensional sensing, interactive multi-models, augmented reality, and other technical means to ensure safety during the use of medical robots; addressing the need for safe human-machine-environment interaction requires research in areas such as vision, compensation, planning, augmented reality, and biomechanics to enhance the digital twin performance of medical robots; and in response to the development needs of telemedicine, it is crucial to leverage 6G intelligent interconnection technology to overcome key technical issues such as real-time feedback and precise analysis of multimodal information in surgical areas, and low-latency network security transmission to enhance the remote interaction capabilities of medical robots.

At the same time, as medical devices, medical robots face strict access mechanisms, increasing the difficulty of industrialization. Optimizing supervision and piloting green channels can balance their safety and marketability, improving technology transfer efficiency.

As an important innovation in the medical field, medical robots lead the collaborative development of industry, academia, and research, standing at the forefront of new quality productivity innovation. With technological breakthroughs and application expansion, they will profoundly transform the medical field, but they also need to address challenges related to technology, safety, and ethics, establishing a responsible, trustworthy, and sustainable risk governance system to ensure their healthy and sustainable development. In the future, medical robot technology will become more mature, contributing greater strength to human health endeavors.

Editor of this issue: Wang Xue