Robotics and automation in the medical sector

 Robotics in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector has a relatively long history, having started with a robot called the Puma 560 in 1985, according to All About Robotic Surgery.

Now, however, a number of robotic and automation systems have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for operation in healthcare environments, and the market is probably set to grow exponentially in the next few years as they become fully commercialized.

While robotic surgery systems such as Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci may be the most photogenic of the systems, gaining a lot of publicity in recent years, there are numerous other systems being developed, with some already being used in healthcare.

For example, Omnicell is doing a brisk trade with its automated pharmaceuticals dispensing machine.

Midea, the home appliances giant, is considering launching something similar, although no pictures or details of its robot pharmacist have yet emerged.

But there is quite a lot of activity in the sector, which is why we thought we’d round up the companies which are either ready to launch robotic healthcare systems or have already introduced them.