Recent development of medical service robots in Republic of Korea and their field demonstration cases in the clinical setting

Abstract

In recent years, there have been noticeable changes in the medical service environment and the ways in which services are delivered. A trend worth noting is the significant increase in research and development (R&D) as well as the field utilization of medical service robots. “Medical service robots” are defined as robots developed to provide people with various types of healthcare-related services in clinical settings. The scope of medical service robots covered in this paper is limited to nursing and care robots, logistics robots, medical assistant robots, disinfection robots, and guidance robots. The concept of each robot will be explained, and related robots developed in Republic of Korea will be introduced. We also briefly present several demonstration projects that utilize medical service robots in the clinical setting to evaluate the effectiveness in reducing the workload, and emphasize the importance of continued attention and research in the development of these robots.