Editorial: Translational research in medical robotics—challenges and opportunities

In the last few decades, emerging medical technologies and the growing number of commercial robotic platforms have supported diagnosis and treatment of both acute and chronic diseases of the human body, improving the clinical outcome, reducing trauma, shortening the patient recovery time, and increasing postoperative survival rates (Troccaz et al., 2019). Medical robots–including surgical robots, rehabilitation and assistive robots, and hospital automation robots–with improved safety, efficacy and reduced costs, robotic platforms will soon approach a tipping point, moving beyond early adopters to become part of the mainstream clinical practice, defining the future of smart hospitals and home-based patient care. Surgical robots promise to enhance minimally invasive surgery with precise instrument control, intuitive hand-eye coordination, and superior dexterity within tight spaces (Dupont et al., 2021). Rehabilitation robotics facilitates robot-assisted therapy and automated recovery training (Xue et al., 2021). Assistive robots aid individuals with physical limitations, either enhancing or compensating for functions, promoting independence, and lessening the burden on caregivers (Trainum et al., 2023). Additionally, robotic systems can automate hospital operations, spanning service robots aiding clinicians to robots in labs for high-throughput testing (Kwon et al., 2022). These technologies aim to revolutionize healthcare, offering improved patient care and operational efficiency