The safety design concept for surgical robot employing degree of autonomy

Recently, Medical Robot Industry is being activated. Robot technology has been applied to existing medical devices and is being used not only for diagnosis but also for surgical procedures. Although the products and functions of surgical robots using robot technology have been diversified, safety issues of products need to be discussed constantly. IEC / TR 60601-4-1, technical report of medical electrical equipment employing a degree of autonomy was published in May of 2017. Also, discussions on this particular standard for surgery robot are currently underway at the international standardization stage. As the Degree of Autonomy of the medical device increases, the safety issues to be considered will widen. In this paper, we introduce a study on essential performance and basic safety of surgical robots. We will focus on safety design factors that manufacturers should consider for various functions and usage purposes. In conclusion, based on recent trends of standardization, we propose the direction to consider for safety design of surgical robots employing degree of autonomy.