China’s First Certified Mobile Medical Robot Officially Joins the ICU of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University
- Elva Chen
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
On March 19, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine welcomed a special new team member: China’s first mobile medical robot certified by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). It has officially settled in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and started trial operation, empowering critical care with smart technologies and marking a new phase in the hospital’s smart healthcare development.
The ICU serves as the life frontline for critically ill patients and a key benchmark of a hospital’s comprehensive treatment capacity. Currently, critical care in China still faces challenges such as workforce shortages, uneven distribution of high-quality resources, and limited multi-campus collaboration efficiency. Targeting frontline clinical pain points, the team led by Dr. Zhuang Yiyu, Vice President of Nursing at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, joined hands with the team of Professor Ouyang Bo from Hefei University of Technology and other institutions to develop China’s first mobile medical robot with independent intellectual property rights.
Composed of a mobile chassis, a 7-degree-of-freedom robotic arm, a panoramic camera, a remote stethoscope and other modules, the robot can accurately recognize patients’ facial expressions and body movements. Unlike single-function inspection or disinfection robots on the market, it is one of the few comprehensive intelligent medical devices worldwide that can enter the ICU "red zone" to perform visualized consultation, autonomous vital sign detection and interactive physical examination. After medical staff issue instructions via terminals and force-feedback control platforms, the robot can navigate autonomously into wards to efficiently carry out full-process intelligent monitoring including smart rounds, autonomous detection and condition early warning.
Supported by three core capabilities—5G communication, high-precision robotic arms and 3D immersive vision systems—the robot effectively breaks physical barriers and enables real-time sharing of high-quality critical care resources across campuses and regions.
The project team has achieved major breakthroughs in key technologies, conquering motion planning and human-machine collaboration in unstructured complex environments.
Clinicians can use VR devices to access a first-person perspective and accurately perform remote auscultation, bedside ultrasound, medical record and monitoring data review and other operations. This not only reduces infection risks and eases the heavy workload of medical staff, but also ensures timely treatment for critically ill patients, helping hospitals and grassroots cooperative institutions deliver standardized critical care.
In nursing scenarios, the robot acts as an ICU "smart housekeeper" and builds an intelligent logistics network. It can automatically deliver replacement fluid, irrigation fluid, medical consumables and frequently transport blood gas samples, with full-process automatic obstacle avoidance and high precision. This greatly reduces nurses’ non-diagnostic workload, allowing medical staff to devote more time to patient care and comprehensively improving ward operation efficiency and treatment quality.
To meet the strong visiting needs of ICU patients’ families, the robot is equipped with a VR cloud visiting system, enabling families to "immersively" see their loved ones and send care even outside regular visiting hours. This effectively relieves family anxiety and integrates humanistic care deeply into the entire smart healthcare service process.
It is reported that the robot achieves 100% independent control of core components. Core parts such as the mobile chassis, multi-joint end effector and remote interaction platform are fully domestic, breaking reliance on imported key technologies. This signifies that China has formed a complete independent industrial chain in the field of high-end digital medical devices, and established product standards and medical device quality management systems in this sector.
In the future, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University will continue to promote the iteration and upgrading of intelligent robots, accelerating the rollout of advanced 2.0 functions including automatic round reports, autonomous battery replacement, intelligent patrols, AI healthcare-associated infection control and emotion recognition companionship. The robot will evolve from "remote assistance" to "intelligent collaboration".
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