Enhancing healthcare with high-impact robotic solutions

For us, robots are AI- and sensor-driven machines that are capable of performing routine tasks or specialized jobs in hospitals – including diagnostics, therapeutic procedures, and logistics. Depending on the defined task, this requires a correspondingly technical versatility, a differentiated reception and secure processing of information as well as a certain degree of autonomy of the resulting actions in order to meet the dynamic requirements in health care.

The research and development of robotic applications is diverse and multifaceted. Robots can be used in logistics, diagnostics and treatments. In all these areas they aim to speed up and simplify workflows in hospitals or laboratories.

Robotic systems are already assisting healthcare professionals with routine clinical tasks. Patients generally do not notice them. The jobs performed by these systems include fully automated laboratory systems that process blood and tissue samples. While performing this task, they sort out the samples, analyze them, and deliver results. Imaging diagnostics has become a standard part of complex procedures. The additional knowledge obtained by these systems in real time supports medical specialists during surgery. In radiation therapy, dosages and beam alignment are controlled. Robotic applications are used in both areas and improve the precision and safety of medical procedures.

Robotic systems play a central role in tackling the challenges posed by the shortage of skilled healthcare workers and in relieving to some extent the burden on medical professionals treating an increasing number of patients. Innovative applications will help to automate routine tasks, improve user-friendliness, and perform complex procedures on patients with precision. It is conceivable that in the future, patients will encounter self-driving transport systems in the large, spacious hospital corridors or drones when approaching the hospital facilities.

Artificial intelligence and corresponding computing power enable communication and interactions between machines and between humans and machines. The precise control of movements, the processing of large amounts of data and the integration into existing hospital information systems are inconceivable without sophisticated software.

A robot's ability to learn, understand, communicate, and act is divided into degrees of autonomy. Depending on how autonomous the system is, certain routine tasks can be taken over. The higher the degree of autonomy, the more complex the tasks can be. The ability to communicate and adapt, as well as real-time decision-making in the face of unknown situations, are important qualities to be able to take on complex tasks.

Siemens Healthineers currently has robotic applications in the range of autonomy levels 0 to 3 that are available on the global market. Systems with higher degrees of autonomy are already in research and development.

Medical needs are the prerequisite for our research and development activities. Robotic systems are specifically researched and developed for one or more applications a clinical setting. Accordingly, our developers use mechatronics, sensor technology and artificial intelligence.

On the basis of the existing standard medical techniques and the respective success stories on site as well as structured data sets, the machines are being programmed, trained, and also further developed.

Our developers apply security protocols and privacy measures to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of patient data.

In the future of healthcare, robots will enhance and expand access to medical services, achieve a higher level of standardization of treatments, and improve overall treatment quality and outcomes. Advances in research and development of artificial intelligence, particularly in agentic and generative artificial intelligence, are transforming robotics and its applications at an extraordinary speed.

One of the main drivers: The computing power continues to increase rapidly. This makes understanding and translation into action in real time increasingly possible. The integration of powerful GPUs promotes real-time interaction and decision-making, enabling robots to support humans in complex environments such as hospitals. We are at a game-changing moment in history: The groundbreaking potential, which was previously hardly possible to leverage due to computational limitations, is now within reach. In logistics, diagnostics and treatments, the automation level of robotic applications in hospitals, visible or invisible to patients and to staff, will increase sharply.

We believe that robotic applications based on their perceptual capabilities will eventually (in the distant future) have their own digital twins. These applications will then communicate with the operational twins of hospitals and the patients' digital health twins.

Human-machine interaction is complex. In healthcare it is even more complex because of patients. After all, their needs and illnesses are always different. Imagine a world where machines are not just tools, but intelligent partners that interact and learn from their environment in real time. This hyper-automation, powered by artificial intelligence and sensing, will revolutionize the way we work and live. Robots will not only perform tasks but will act and make decisions autonomously through continuous feedback and adaptation.

In the medicine of the future, there will still be people who take care of patients – because we humans will continue to depend on this relationship of trust. We don't believe that intelligent machines will replace humans. However, these devices will have an important impact on medicine and expand people's senses and abilities.