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Lee Sang-hoon, Head of CUREXO's R&D Center: "Developing AI to Support the Entire Operating Room... Extending Care Through Rehabilitation"
Lee Sang-hoon, Head of CUREXO's R&D Center, introduces the CUVIS-joint joint replacement surgical robot and digital twin-based AI operating room monitoring technology at ROBOWORLD 2026, held at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on November 4. (Photo by Lee Sang-hyuk)CUREXO is expanding its medical robotics business to encompass artificial intelligence (AI)-based surgical assistance and gait rehabilitation, building on its precision control technology for joint replacement surgical robots.Lee Sang-hoon, Executive Director and Head of CUREXO's R&D Center, said at ROBOWORLD 2026, held at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on November 4, "Our goal is not only to perform surgery successfully but also to develop solutions that cover the entire patient treatment journey, including postoperative care and rehabilitation."CUREXO is a medical robotics company that has developed CUVIS-joint, a joint replacement surgical robot; CUVIS-spine, a spinal surgery robot; and Morning Walk, a gait rehabilitation robot. The company participated in a robotics exhibition rather than a medical conference to showcase its proprietary medical robotics technology and commercial achievements.The company's key competitive strength lies in its in-house development capabilities for core surgical robotics technologies. CUVIS-joint uses AI to analyze computed tomography (CT) images, identify patients' bone structures, and recommend the appropriate implant size and placement. During surgery, real-time navigation allows surgeons to adjust surgical plans based on soft tissue tension. A six-axis robotic arm then automatically performs precise bone cutting within the planned boundaries."While other surgical robots provide virtual boundaries as surgeons manually operate instruments, CUVIS-joint performs the bone-cutting process fully autonomously," Lee explained. "When we first introduced the product in 2020, there were doubts about its commercial viability. However, we have since sold more than 200 units worldwide."CUREXO is now expanding these technological capabilities to support the entire operating room. At the exhibition, the company showcased an AI-based operating room monitoring system that integrates spatial recognition sensors developed by SOSLAB with NVIDIA's Isaac Sim simulation platform. The system detects personnel entering and leaving the operating room, as well as robotic movements, and res these activities in a digital twin environment.In the future, CUREXO plans to comprehensively analyze patients' preoperative information and intraoperative conditions to provide medical professionals with guidance on subsequent surgical steps and personalized patient information."Multiple medical professionals must work closely together in the operating room," Lee explained. "Rather than assisting surgeons with specific tasks, our goal is to understand the entire surgical environment and support smooth and efficient surgical procedures."Moon Jun-sik, Associate Researcher of CUREXO's Rehabilitation Robotics Team, demonstrates the Morning Walk 3.0 gait rehabilitation robot at ROBOWORLD 2026 on November 4. (Photo by Lee Sang-hyuk)The company has also advanced its gait rehabilitation robot technology to support postoperative recovery. Morning Walk 3.0, unveiled for the first time at the exhibition, incorporates feedback from medical professionals who used the previous 2.0 model.Its size and weight have been reduced by approximately 50%, making installation easier and improving patient accessibility and convenience.Morning Walk enables gait training by securing patients' feet to robotic footplates. The system simulates walking on level ground, stairs, and slopes while measuring the forces applied to the footplates and forward and backward propulsion.These measurements encourage patients to actively engage their muscles during rehabilitation.The virtual reality (VR) display also visualizes plantar pressure distribution and the center of pressure, allowing patients to monitor their gait patterns and training performance."Because we develop everything in-house, from robotic hardware and software to sensors and clinical support technologies, we can quickly incorporate feedback from medical professionals," Lee emphasized. "We are developing technologies that support the entire patient treatment journey, rather than focusing solely on a single surgical procedure."Beyond improving surgical accuracy, the company aims to support collaboration among the entire surgical team and extend its solutions to patients' postoperative recovery.By Lee Sang-hyuk, ETNews faker@etnews.com
