Robotics in medicine

Abstract

This paper reports the current state-of-the-art in medical robotics. Rather than trying to enumerate all the possible applications of robots or robotic technologies to medicine, three general areas of advanced robotics are identified which, based on the current technological background and expertise, could potentially provide significant improvements to the state-of-the-art in medicine. These are: macro robotics, micro robotics and bio-robotics. Macro robotics includes the development of robots, wheelchairs, manipulators for rehabilitation as well as new more powerful tools and techniques for surgery; micro robotics could greatly contribute to the field of minimally invasive surgery as well as to the development of a new generation of miniaturised mechatronic tools for conventional surgery; bio-robotics deals with the problems of modelling and simulating biological systems in order to provide a better understanding of human physiology. According to this classification, a review on the most important past and ongoing research projects in the field is reported. Some commercial products already appeared on the market are also mentioned and a brief analysis of the economical potentialities of robotics in medicine which can be prefigured in the near future is presented.