Medical robots are robots used in hospitals and clinics for medical or auxiliary medical care; they are a type of intelligent service robot that can independently create operation plans, determine action programs based on actual conditions, and then convert the actions into the movement of the operating mechanism.
Depending on their application, medical robots can be categorized into hospital delivery robots, mobile patient robots, clinical medical robots, rehabilitation robots, nursing robots, and medical teaching robots.
Hospital delivery robots
Hospital delivery robots are mobile robots that are battery-powered, fully autonomous navigation-based, driverless, automated material handling systems.
In traditional hospitals, the transfer of various items within the hospital is mainly completed by patients, medical staff, or dedicated delivery teams. There is no clear distinction between the flow of people and the flow of goods, and the overlap between people and goods is quite serious, which often leads to chaos in the flow of people and goods. There is a potential for cross-infection among various personnel, as well as the possibility of items being contaminated, damaged, or lost.
It is precisely for these various reasons that logistics robots have gradually begun to emerge in some large hospitals in the past two years.
The intelligent delivery robots are mainly responsible for delivering medicine and meals to the isolation area, as well as collecting linens and medical waste within the hospital. Through intelligent scheduling by the "brain" control center, they can autonomously open and close doors, take elevators, avoid obstacles, and recharge themselves, all without human intervention.
The robot cabinet is equipped with ultraviolet disinfection lamps to keep the cabinet and its contents safe at all times. The robot also features remote real-time voice and video communication capabilities, allowing it to communicate directly with nurses or patients in isolation wards through a dispatch system. The medication delivery robot can replace nurses in delivering meals, medical records, and lab reports, among other things.
Mobile patient robot
Mobile patient robots are a type of assistive robot, primarily used to help nurses move or transport paralyzed or immobile patients. Currently, the medical demand for this type of robot is the weakest.
Clinical medical robots
Clinical medical robots include surgical robots and diagnostic and therapeutic robots, which can perform precise surgical procedures or diagnoses, such as the Japanese WAPRU-4 thoracic tumor diagnostic robot and the American surgical robot "da Vinci System", which are of paramount importance in medical robots.
The first robot-assisted surgery was performed in 1985, when an industrial robot was used to stabilize the patient's head, facilitating the drilling and insertion of tissue sampling needles into designated locations during neurosurgery.
The "da Vinci" robot is the most well-known in the industry, and its success is partly due to its FDA approval for clinical trials. In China, Tinavi has also obtained a surgical robot medical device registration certificate issued by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), becoming the only orthopedic robot system in the world capable of performing trauma orthopedic and spinal surgeries.
rehabilitation robots
Rehabilitation robots are primarily designed to serve people with disabilities, helping them regain the ability to live independently, such as the Prab Command system in the United States.
Rehabilitation robots combine industrial and medical robotics, and their research spans numerous fields including rehabilitation medicine, biomechanics, mechanics, electronics, materials science, computer science, and robotics, becoming a research hotspot in the international robotics field. Currently, research on rehabilitation robots mainly focuses on rehabilitation manipulators, hospital robot systems, intelligent wheelchairs, prostheses, and rehabilitation therapy robots; it has not only promoted the development of rehabilitation medicine but also driven the development of new technologies and theories in related fields.
nursing robots
Nursing robots not only have vision, hearing, and smell, but they can also carry people and take care of the elderly. In terms of functional design, they fully consider the characteristics and needs of the elderly, disabled and bedridden people, achieving a high degree of integration of humanization and intelligence.
Medical teaching robots
Medical teaching robots are ideal teaching tools. For example, the "Noel" teaching robot developed in the United States can simulate a pregnant woman about to give birth, and can even speak and scream. By simulating real childbirth, it helps improve the surgical coordination and on-site response of obstetric and gynecological medical staff.
my country has a wide variety of medical robots, mainly including rehabilitation robots, assistive robots, surgical robots, non-therapeutic service robots, and other robots. Among them, rehabilitation robots account for the largest proportion, reaching 42%, followed by assistive robots at 17%, surgical robots at 16%, and non-therapeutic service robots at 8%.
In terms of the distribution of medical robot companies, my country's medical robot companies are mainly located in cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Jiangsu, accounting for more than half of the total number of companies. The main reason is that first-tier cities have a complete industrial chain and abundant market channels in the field of medical equipment.
