Global robotics giant ABB will open its first dedicated healthcare research centre equipped with collaborative robots in the US later this year.

The new medical laboratory will be located at the Texas Medical Centre (TMC) innovation campus in Houston, Texas.

ABB’s research team will work on the TMC campus with medical staff, scientists and engineers when the new facility opens in October.

The team will develop non-surgical medical robotics systems, including logistics and next-generation automated laboratory technologies.

Sami Atiya, President of ABB’s Robotics and Discrete Automation business said: “The next-generation laboratory processes developed in Houston will speed manual medical laboratory processes, reducing and eliminating bottlenecks in laboratory work and enhancing safety and consistency.

“This is especially applicable for new high-tech treatments, such as the cancer therapies pioneered at the Texas Medical Centre, which today require manual and time-consuming test processes.”

Medical professionals can now focus on more highly skilled work

Today, a limiting factor to the number of patients who can be treated is the need for highly skilled medical experts who spend a large part of their day doing repetitive and low value tasks, such as preparing slides and loading centrifuges.

Using robots to automate these tasks will enable medical professionals to focus on more highly skilled and productive work, while ultimately helping more people to receive treatment through dramatically speeding the testing process.

ABB has analysed a wide range of current manual medical laboratory processes and estimates that 50% more tests could be carried out every year using automation.

And training robots to undertake repetitive processes will reduce the need for people to do tasks which cause repetitive strain injury (RSI).

As the world population ages, countries are spending an increasingly larger proportion of their GDP on healthcare.

In addition to improving the quality of patient care, increasing healthcare efficiency through automation can ease some of the societal, political and financial challenges that this will cause.

Cobots are well suited to medical facilities

The market for non-surgical medical robots is estimated to reach nearly 60,000 by 2025 – almost four times more than last year, according to an internal ABB research.

ABB’s collaborative robots, which already operate in food and beverage laboratories worldwide, are well suited to medical facilities as they don’t require safety fences to operate safely and efficiently alongside people.

The robots will undertake a range of repetitive, delicate and time-consuming activities including dosing, mixing and pipetting tasks as well as sterile instrument kitting and centrifuge loading and unloading.

Houston is a focal point for medical technology research globally and the TMC innovation ecosystem is the ideal location for ABB’s new healthcare hub.

Pushing the boundaries of innovative collaboration

A 20-strong team from ABB Robotics will work in the new 500 sqm research facility, which includes an automation laboratory and robot training facilities, as well as meeting spaces for co-developing solutions with innovation partners.

“With this exciting partnership, Texas Medical Centre continues to push the boundaries of innovative collaboration with cutting-edge industry partners by establishing TMC as the epicenter for ABB Robotics’ entry into the healthcare space,” said Bill McKeon, President & CEO of Texas Medical Centre.

“Operating a city within a city that sees 10 million patients on an annual basis, it is essential to prioritise efficiency, and precision and to develop processes that are easily repeatable in nature.

“By bringing ABB into the fold at TMC Innovation with this first-of-its-kind R&D facility for creating robotics solutions in healthcare, TMC is emphasizing its commitment to doing just that.”

Transforming how medical laboratories operate worldwide

Atiya said ABB is proud to co-develop collaborative robotics systems for the Hospital of the Future with one of the world’s most advanced partners.

Testing them in real-world laboratories would ensure they add value to healthcare professionals and transform how medical laboratories operate worldwide.

“A key element of ABB’s long-term growth strategy is to continue to invest and innovate in service robotics, bringing our automation expertise to new areas such as healthcare and building on our automotive and electronics sectors business,” Atiya said.

Texas Medical Centre, the largest medical city in the world, is at the forefront of advancing life sciences. The Centre boasts more than 106,000 employees. 

TMC hosts 10 million patients and performs over 180,000 surgeries each year.