The International Advanced Robotics Programme was launched in 1982 at the OECD Economic Summit in Versailles. The main objective was to improve the range of robotics technology in the service sector. As part of this the UK was responsible for demonstrator projects in Medicine and Healthcare Robotics.

In 1985 Patrick Finlay was appointed Manager of the National Medical Robotics Programme by the UK Government and was responsible for a 12 month feasibility study encompassing:

• + Visits to all known medical robotics research centres globally
• + Multi-disciplinary brainstorms and forecasts
• + 400 possible applications were identified
• + A cost-benefit model for prioritising candidates was then constructed

The three top-scoring IARP demonstrator projects were identified for development and can be viewed on independent pages as listed below:

• + Patient Handling
• + Rehabilitation
• + Head Surgery

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