KUKA Innovation Awards 2025

 

"The KUKA Innovation Award 2025 is aimed both at the interaction of robotic systems with humans in the medical environment and at robots as part of future medical applications. Applicants were asked to introduce and demonstrate new, innovative and interactive methods for improving health and care. These include applications with direct patient interaction in the fields of diagnostics, rehabilitation, surgery and other forms of therapy.

• Team guidooSpine - Germany
• The BEC Robotics team is developing an image- and tracking-supported robotic assistance system for the efficient planning and precise execution of spinal interventions with straight surgical instruments and implants. The biggest challenge is the close proximity to the spinal cord, which poses a significant risk of injury to the nerve cord. The challenges of the procedure can be exacerbated by possible displacement of the target vertebra during the procedure, for example due to the patient's breathing, the patient's movement or the force exerted during the procedure. The robotic assistance system offers high precision under load. This enables better health outcomes while reducing the likelihood of damaging nerves or arteries. Applications include tumour removal near the spinal cord or the insertion of pedicle screws for spinal fusion, i.e. screws to stabilize the spine. 
• Team SERA - Canada
• Current robots in orthopedic surgery have limited cross-surgery capabilities, although many procedures have similar tasks to assess and repair damaged joints. The idea of Team Sera from the University of Waterloo aims to develop a robust collaborative multi-tasking robotic assistant for orthopedic surgery. The basis of this approach is the creation of modularized workflows where different types of tasks and tools can be adapted to the needs of a surgical procedure.
• Team AUROVAS - Italy
• Due to a lack of medical staff, there are no ultrasound screening campaigns to detect dangerous and asymptomatic vascular diseases. The concept of Team AUROVAS from the University of Ferrara therefore includes an autonomous robotic system to perform standardized ultrasound procedures to identify relevant vascular indicators. The ultrasound image generated by the ultrasound probe moved by the robot is processed by a deep neural network that segments the vascular structures and provides the final indicators. The system addresses three use cases: detecting abdominal aortic aneurysms, assessing the jugular venous pulse in chronic heart failure, and performing compression ultrasound to detect deep vein thrombosis.
• Team ULTRATOPIA - Belgium and Switzerland
• Pedicle screw placement (PSP) is a surgical technique used in spinal surgery to stabilize the spine in an anatomically challenging environment. It is most often used for spinal fractures, scoliosis and degenerative disc disease. Team ULTRATOPIA from KU Leuven and Balgrist University Hospital of the University of Zurich, partners in the EU-funded FAROS project, presents an advanced approach using collaborative multi-robotic systems to improve the accuracy of pedicle screw placement through non-radiative imaging. It includes a robotic arm equipped with ultrasound to monitor and guide the robotic drill arm during the procedure. This approach aims to improve the precision of the PSP, reduce registration errors and account for physiological movements to ultimately improve surgical outcomes.
• Team HERMIS - Germany
• The conventional MRI scanner offers excellent soft tissue contrast, 3D visualization and physiological monitoring capabilities, but the high cost of integrating such imaging devices into hospitals limits their widespread use in smaller clinics and resource-limited countries. The advent of low-field MRI technology has enabled cost-effective diagnostic solutions that are expanding access to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices worldwide. These portable low-field MRI scanners are designed for imaging a specific region of the body due to their limited range of motion, workspace, and magnetic field strength. EndoSurge, a spin-off from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, aims to solve these problems with the design and development of HERMIS (Human Endovascular Robotic Magnetic Imaging System), the world's first robotic, portable MRI scanner for versatile diagnostics.

 Source: KUKA