Medical

Medical robotics operates on a different clock from the rest of the field. Regulatory clearance, clinical evidence, and hospital procurement cycles mean the gap between a working prototype and a device in theatre is measured in years, and claims are held to a standard of evidence that consumer robotics never faces.

Surgical robotics is the established segment, built on teleoperation rather than autonomy: the system filters tremor and improves access and visualisation, but a surgeon is driving throughout. Competition has intensified around the long-dominant incumbent, which matters mostly because it pressures the per-procedure consumable costs that drive hospital economics.

Rehabilitation and assistive devices — exoskeletons, powered prosthetics — face a harder commercial problem than a technical one. The engineering works; reimbursement is the obstacle, and coverage decisions determine which devices reach patients.