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Spying Robots & More: The Coming Robotics Revolution

Initially designed for rescuing wounded personnel, medical robots will find a wounded soldier after receiving an alert. Connected through video, the robot’s human controller assesses and treats the solider with the robot’s onboard medical system including a stethoscope, liquid bandages and automatic syringes.

Early medical robots have advanced to include elaborate extraction and search-and-rescue functions for first responders. An example is the Bear, manufactured by Cambridge, Mass.-based Vecna Technologies. Bear features a wheeled platform and arms capable of lifting more than 500 pounds including injured humans. It’s also immune to nuclear, biological and chemical agents.