SURGICAL ROBOT TECHNOLOGIES

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A robot that removes kidney stones, developed by a Korean engineering professor and authority in robotic surgery, is poised to be commercialized after winning an innovative technology award. AI robotic technologies developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have successfully integrated into our everyday life in the forms of chicken-frying robots and barista robots.

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This is the world's first robot for removing kidney stones. An operator remotely manipulates the robot, which uses a flexible endoscope with a 2.8-millimeter diameter, to find where the kidney stones are located through the urinary tract and takes them out after pulverizing them with the laser. This method is simpler and more accurate than having a doctor personally operating an endoscope. It also reduces the risk of radiation exposure. This technology was recently honored with the innovative technology award at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. It also got a manufacturing permit from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. A KAIST professor who had studied robotics for 27 years started this business together with eight of his students.

[Soundbite] Prof. Kwon Dong-soo(Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST) : "I was frustrated to see students graduate after writing theses and getting patents. I asked them to not just finish with research, but make things that people really need."

Robot technologies were developed by the engineers at KAIST and commercialized to start a business. From 2014 to September of 2022, a total of 185 startups were launched by KAIST faculty members and students. Twenty percent of those businesses were started in the past two years, supported by the KAIST startup support program.

[Soundbite] Kim Young-tae(Director, Startup KAIST) : "Professors and students with top-level scientific and technological capabilities should actualize their potentials to power innovative growth."

KAIST is leading the commercialization of technology movement to make science more lucrative. This is why KAIST is emerging as a new hub of startups.