First robotic surgery

The first surgical robot was Arthrobot, designed to assist in orthopaedic procedures, and used for the first time in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1983. Developed by a team led by Dr James McEwen and Geof Auchinlek, the voice-controlled robot was designed in collaboration with orthopaedic surgeon Dr Brian Day. In addition to tasks such as selecting and passing specialist equipment, Arthrobot could assist with positioning patients' limbs, thus allowing the human surgeon to focus on the medical procedure. This also prevented the need for a human assistant simply to support the patient's limb during surgery.

The voice-command surgery saw doctors requesting something from Arthrobot, and Arthrobot repeating that request to confirm it had been understood.

National Geographic produced a movie on robotics featuring Arthrobot.