NEW DELHI: India's first Medical Cobotics Centre (MCC) is being set up at IIIT-Delhi for promoting related advanced researches in the field of medical simulation. Cobotics is a neologism formed by the "collaborative" and "robotics" terms.
Recently at a function, the I-Hub Foundation for Cobotics (IHFC), the Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) and the TIH of Inderprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIITD), signed an MoU to set up the MCC at IIIT-Delhi.
The proposed MCC will be a technology-enabled medical simulation and training facility for the young resident doctors besides acting as a validation centre for the research outcomes for healthcare robotics and digital health.
"The two hubs are committed to developing advanced technologies in the field of medical robotics and Cobotics, digital health, computing technologies desired in robotic-assisted surgeries," said an official source.
According to Professor V Ramgopal Rao, director at IIT Delhi, "We are happy to associate with IIITD for the joint Medical Cobotics Centre. In order to develop technologies for societal benefit, it’s important for researchers from to come together and work in a focused manner."
IIIT Delhi director Prof Ranjan Bose said that cognitive and sensing technologies were essential for next-generation robotics, particularly for application in the medical domain and digital health.
Ashutosh Dutta Sharma, CEO of IHFC at IIT Delhi said that while India had several medical simulation centres for providing training to the resident doctors, there was none dedicated to developing these technologies.