This is why an international research team wins the KUKA Innovation Award 2019

The winner of the KUKA Innovation Award 2019 have been announced: a research team from the Universities of Leeds, Vanderbilt and Turin convinced the jury with their concept for robotic magnetic flexible endoscope for painless colorectal cancer screening, surveillance and intervention. The innovation prize is worth 20,000 euros.

“It was an exciting competition with excellent projects. In the end, the jury opted for a concept that offers patients particularly great advantages and can even save lives. We see great potential in this innovative idea“, says Dr. Rainer Bischoff, Vice President KUKA Corporate Research at the award ceremony at the medical technology trade fair MEDICA in Duesseldorf.

Painless colorectal cancer screening, surveillance and intervention with robotic assistance
The colonoscopy is a common procedure to detect bowel cancer in its early stages. This procedure offers major advantages. Nevertheless, the current technology also has disadvantages such as the risk of perforation, pain and high costs.
As an alternative, Team RoboFORCE with researchers from the universities of Leeds, Vanderbilt and Turin are developing a robot platform using a magnetic capsule which navigates through the bowels thanks to magnetic coupling with an external magnet mounted on an LBR Med.
Robotic talents from all over the world had previously applied with their ideas on the subject of "Healthy Living". An international jury selected the five best concepts. The final teams presented their concepts to a broad specialist audience at MEDICA 2019, the largest medical technology trade fair.