KUKA and Siemens Healthineers are expanding their long-standing partnership, as this year and next year KUKA will supply 300 robots for the medical technology manufacturer’s ARTIS pheno angiography system — an X-ray-based imaging system for ‘interventional, cardiology, and surgical disciplines’ that features a KUKA KR Quantec.

This ‘robot’ moves the C-arm with X-ray source and image converter around the patient, giving the surgeon optimal access ‘to the surgical field’ during a medical intervention, while being supported by the imaging; and via the use of a joystick, the robotic system can be moved precisely to the individual positions required by the treating physicians.

Patients can be positioned differently on the operating table during surgical procedures, and rapid adjustments in positioning are also possible, which in certain situations lead to easier breathing or stabilisation of blood pressure.

Since 2016, this system has been in use in more than 550 hospitals worldwide; and including previous versions, well over 1,200 systems are in use. Dominik Eymüller, KUKA’s account manager for medical robotics, said: “For many years, KUKA and Siemens Healthineers have been working closely together in the development of ‘state of the art ’medical technology with robotics support, and together we will continue to shape medical technology in the future.”