• 1920

Czech playwright and novelist Karel Capek coins the term ‘robot’ in his play RUR (Rossum’s Universal Robots)

• 1942

Issac Asimov talks about ‘three laws of robotics’ in his short story. Runaraound, popularising the term ‘robotics’.

• 1950

NASA develops the concept of telepresence

• 1961

World’s first industrial robot, Unimate, installed at General Motors plant in Trenton, New Jersey

• 1969

World’s first computer-controlled robotic arm, Stanford Arm, is developed by Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab researcher Victor Scheinman

• 1983

Arthrobot, world’s first surgical robot developed for orthopaedic surgery, is used in Vancouver, Canada

• 1985

PUMA 560, a robotic surgical arm, is used for needle brain biopsy in the first instance of documented robot-assisted surgery.

• 1988

ROBODOC, a surgical robot, is used to perform full human hip replacement procedure
PROBOT used at Imperial College, London, in clinical trials to carry out transurethral surgery in urology

• 1993

AESOP, Automated Endoscope System for Optimal Positioning, a robotic arm is released for use in holding and positioning camera in laparoscopic procedures

• 1994

Cyberknife is used for stereotactic radiosurgery

• 1995

Intuitive Surgical Inc founded. The company designs, constructs and markets robotic products for minimally invasive surgeries

• 1998

ZEUS, robotic surgical system, is used for the first complete endoscopic robot-assisted surgery. It comprises three table-mounted robotic arms and a surgical control centre
A robot-assisted heart bypass is done in Leipzig, Germany using da Vinci from Intuitive Surgical Inc

• 1999

First standard da Vinci robotic surgical system is launched in the market

• 2000

da Vinci gets the Food and Drug Administration approval in USA for laparoscopic procedures
First RARP (Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy) is performed in Paris, France

• 2001

ZEUS system helps perform transatlantic remote surgery with the patient with female patient in Strasbourg, France and the surgeon in New York, USA

• 2003

da Vinci first upgrade; fourth robotic arm added

• 2006

da Vinci S, with high-definition vision and multi-image display, launched

• 2009

da Vinci Si, with dual console capability allowing for surgical collaborations, launched