ABB will launch collaborative robots specifically aimed at healthcare. These are not surgical robots, but robots that perform supportive work.
ABB announces. ABB is a manufacturer of collaborative robots, among other products. Unlike traditional industrial robots, collaborative robots can safely work together with humans, without requiring a safety cage, for example. In most cases, collaborative robots continuously scan their surroundings and detect the presence of people and other objects. If this is the case, the robot's operation is adjusted and the robot is stopped if necessary.
Non-surgical medical robotic systems
The robot manufacturer announced last week that it will open a new innovation campus at the Texas Medical Center in the US state of Texas. This campus is entirely focused on non-surgical medical robotic systems. These include robots that perform logistics tasks such as transporting medical products, as well as automating operations in laboratories.
"The next-generation laboratory processes being developed in Houston accelerate manual medical laboratory processes, reduce and eliminate bottlenecks in laboratory work and improve safety and consistency. This is very applicable to new high-tech treatments, such as cancer therapies the Texas Medical Center is working on. These require manual and time-consuming testing processes," explains Sami Atiya, president of ABB's Robotics and Discrete Automation division.
Much time spent on repetitive work
The number of patients that can currently be treated depends partly on the number of available specialised medical experts. These experts are scarce, but nevertheless spend much of their day on repetitive tasks that add little value, such as preparing object glasses and filling centrifuges. By using robots to automate these tasks, medical professionals can focus on higher-skilled and more productive work, while drastically speeding up the testing process to treat more patients.
ABB has analysed a wide range of processes currently performed manually in medical laboratories. Based on this analysis, the company estimates that with the help of robots, 50% more tests can be performed on an annual basis. ABB also expects that the number of RSI complaints can be reduced among medical professionals as they spend less time performing repetitive tasks.
Market grows rapidly
The robot manufacturer foresees a hefty demand for non-surgical medical robots. Based on its own research, the company predicts that almost 60,000 such robots will be in use by 2025. This is almost a fourfold increase compared to 2018.
ABB has long supplied the IRB 14000 YuMi, a two-armed collaborative robot specifically designed to automate operations. Launched in 2015, this robot is designed to work closely with humans. It is also possible to combine several YuMi to automate more complex tasks.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
