MedTech: AI and Medical Robots
MedTech: AI and Medical Robots
How have medical robots progressed?
After being introduced to society through plays in the 1900’s, robots have been used to perform
mechanical labour in factories throughout the world. Robots are now used in a variety of ways in
different healthcare settings.
In this timeline you can see how robots have impacted medicine and have progressed through the
years.
1958: The first wearable external pacemaker was developed in 1958 by Earl Bakken.
1974: The first CT scanner introduced for only the head by Hounsfield and Cormack.
1985: The first robot to be introduced within surgery was an industrial robotic arm modified to perform
stereotactic brain biopsy with an accuracy of 0.05mm.
1992: The Robodoc was introduced to assist in hip replacement surgery and used to core the femoral
head to receive a hip replacement prosthesis.
1997: The DaVinci surgical system was introduced by Intuitive surgical to perform a laparoscopic
cholecystectomy in Belgium.
1998: Dr Cynthia created Kismet in 1998, a robot which can interact emotionally with people.
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MedTech: AI and Medical Robots
2005: 2005 was the year where Mitsubishi introduced Wakamaru, a one meter tall household robot to
provide companionship and assistance to the disabled and elderly.
2008: The DEKA bionic arm is a modular prosthetic arm controlled by electrical signals prompted by
the contractions of the closest muscle where the prosthesis is attached, this was released in 2008.
2010: Nurse Cody was developed in 2010, Cody is an assistive care robot that gives sponge baths to
patients.
2019: The Mako Rio is expected to be used on patients. The Mako Rio is the first approved robot for
knee surgery which makes a 3D model of the procedure based on the patient's 3D scan and provides
real-time feedback as the surgeons use speciality instruments.
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