Medical & healthcare robotics: a roadmap for enhanced precision, safety, and efficacy
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Medical robotics holds transformative potential for healthcare. Robots excel in tasks requiring precision, including surgery and minimally invasive interventions, and they can enhance diagnostics through improved automated imaging techniques. Despite the application potentials, the adoption of robotics still faces obstacles, such as high costs, technological limitations, regulatory issues, and concerns about patient safety and data security. This roadmap, authored by an international team of experts, critically assesses the state of medical robotics, highlighting existing challenges and emphasizing the need for novel research contributions to improve patient care and clinical outcomes. It explores advancements in machine learning, highlighting the importance of trustworthiness and interpretability in robotics, the development of soft robotics for surgical and rehabilitation applications, and the role of image-guided robotic systems in diagnostics and therapy. Mini, micro, and nano robotics for surgical interventions, as well as rehabilitation and assistive robots, are also discussed. Furthermore, the roadmap addresses service robots in healthcare, covering navigation, logistics, and telemedicine. For each of the topics addressed, current challenges and future directions to improve patient care through medical robotics are suggested.
Authors: Dimitris K Iakovidis, Panagiotis Vartholomeos, Alexia Le Gall, Matteo Cianchetti, Oliver Ozioko, Ravinder Dahiya, Evangelos Mazomenos, Francisco Vasconcelos, Danail Stoyanov, Joe Philpott, Taha Erdem, Gerard Cummins, Gastone Ciuti, Carlo A Seneci, Christos Bergeles, Minsoo Kim, Salvador Pané, Bradley J Nelson, Ioannis Poulakakis, Odysseas Simatos, Panagiotis Polygerinos, Petros Toupas, Dimitrios Giakoumis, Dimitrios Tzovaras, Zhidong Su, Weihua Sheng, Andreas S Panayides, Eftychios G Christoforou, Constantinos S Pattichis
Institutions: University of Thessaly, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, University of Derby, Northeastern University, University College London, University of Birmingham, King's College London, ETH Zurich, National Technical University of Athens, Hellenic Mediterranean University, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma State University System, University of Cyprus
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,325
Funders: Royal Academy of Engineering, European Commission, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Wellcome / EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Centre For Medical Engineering, King’s College London
OpenAlex ID: W4414419646