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10 Medical Robots That Could Change Healthcare

By Michelle McNickle 12/07/2012 From microbots that scrape plaque from arteries to personal assistant robots that help care for patients, medical robots are transforming the face of healthcare.

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Vasteras Giraff

The Vasteras Giraff is a mobile communication tool that enables the elderly to communicate with the outside world. It's remote controlled, and it has wheels, a camera and a monitor. Essentially, the Giraff is a robot that provides two-way video calling similar to Skype. A caregiver can control the robot using a typical PC. To date, 42 Giraff robots have been delivered to seven European countries, and 20 more were recently built. According to the company, each production run includes improvements based on "rigorous testing and feedback from end users."

Giraff Technologies, the company behind the Giraff, moved to Sweden in 2009. The country serves as a testing home base for the product. Since 2011, the robot has won a number of industry awards for innovation. The robot system is also part of an additional research project called GiraffPlus, which allows investigators to evaluate how the robot can be incorporated into a larger system for home care.

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