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\n Around the world, health care workers are in short supply, with a shortage of 4.5 million nurse<\/a>s expected by 2030, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).\n <\/p>\n \n Nurses are already feeling the pressure: around one-third of nurses globally<\/a> are experiencing burnout symptoms, like emotional exhaustion, and the profession has a high turnover rate<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n That\u2019s where Nurabot comes in. The autonomous, AI-powered nursing robot is designed to help nurses with repetitive or physically demanding tasks, such as delivering medication or guiding patients around the ward.\n <\/p>\n \n According to Foxconn, the Taiwanese multinational behind Nurabot, the humanoid can reduce nurses\u2019 workload by up to 30%.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis is not a replacement of nurses, but more like accomplishing a mission together,\u201d says Alice Lin, director of user design at Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Technology Group in Taiwan.\n <\/p>\n \n By taking on repetitive tasks, Nurabot frees up nurses for \u201ctasks that really need them, such as taking care of the patients and making judgment calls on the patient\u2019s conditions, based on their professional experience,\u201d Lin told CNN in a video call.\n <\/p>\n \n Nurabot, which took just 10 months to develop, has been undergoing testing at a hospital in Taiwan since April 2025 \u2014 and now, the company is readying the robot for commercial launch early next year. Foxconn does not currently have an estimate for its retail price.\n <\/p>\n \n Foxconn partnered with Japanese robotics company Kawasaki Heavy Industries to build Nurabot\u2019s hardware.\n <\/p>\n \n The firm adapted Kawasaki\u2019s \u201cNyokkey<\/a>\u201d service robot model, which moves around autonomously on wheels, uses its two robotic arms to lift and hold items, and has multiple cameras and sensors to help it recognize its surroundings.\n <\/p>\n \n Based on its initial research on nurses\u2019 daily routines and pain points \u2014 such as walking long distances across the ward to deliver samples \u2014 Foxconn added features, like a space to safely store bottles and vials.\n <\/p>\n \n The robot uses Foxconn\u2019s Chinese large language model for its communication, while US tech giant NVIDIA provided Nurabot\u2019s core AI and robotics infrastructure. NVIDIA says it combined multiple proprietary AI platforms to create Nurabot\u2019s programming, which enables the bot to navigate the hospital independently, schedule tasks, and react to verbal and physical cues.\n <\/p>\n \n AI was also used to train and test the robot in a virtual version of the hospital, which Foxconn says helped its speedy development.\n <\/p>\n \n AI allows Nurabot to \u201cperceive, reason, and act in a more human-like way\u201d and adapt its behavior \u201cbased on the specific patient, context, and situation,\u201d David Niewolny, director of business development for health care and medical at NVIDIA, told CNN in an email.\n <\/p>\n \n Staffing shortages aren\u2019t the only issue facing the health care sector.\n <\/p>\n \n The world\u2019s elderly population is growing rapidly: the number of people aged 60 and over is expected to increase by 40% by 2030<\/a>, compared to 2019, according to the WHO. By the mid-2030s, the UN<\/a> predicts that the number of individuals aged 80 and older will outnumber<\/a> infants.\n <\/p>\n \n Over the past decade, the number of health care workers has steadily increased<\/a>, but not fast enough to beat population growth and aging. Southeast Asia is expected to be one of the worst-impacted regions<\/a> for health care workforce shortages.\n <\/p>\n \n With these impending stressors on the health care system, AI-enhanced systems can provide huge time and cost savings, says nursing and public health professor Rick Kwan<\/a>, associate dean at Tung Wah College in Hong Kong.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAI-assisted robots can really replace some repetitive work, and save lots of manpower,\u201d says Kwan.\n <\/p>\n \n There will be challenges, though: Kwan highlights patient preference for human interaction and the need for infrastructure changes in hospitals.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cYou can look at the hospitals in Hong Kong: very crowded and everywhere is very narrow, so it doesn\u2019t really allow robots to travel around,\u201d says Kwan. Hospitals are designed around human needs and systems, and if robots are to become central to the workflow, this will need to be reimagined in hospital design going forward, he adds.\n <\/p>\n \n Safety is also paramount, says Kwan \u2014 not just in terms of mitigating physical risks, but the development of ethical and data protection protocols, too \u2014 and he encourages a slow and cautious approach that allows for rigorous testing and assessment.\n <\/p>\n \n Robots are not entirely new to health care: surgical robots, like da Vinci<\/a>, have been around for decades and help improve accuracy during operations.\n <\/p>\n \n But increasingly, free-moving humanoids are assisting hospital staff and patients.\n <\/p>\n \n In Singapore, Changi General Hospital currently has more than 80 robots helping doctors and nurses with everything from administrative work to medicine delivery.\n <\/p>\n \n And in the US, nearly 100 \u201cMoxi<\/a>\u201d autonomous health care bots, built by Texas-based Diligent Robots with NVIDIA\u2019s AI platforms, carry medications, samples, and supplies<\/a> across hospital wards, according to NVIDIA.\n <\/p>\n \n But the jury is still out on how helpful nursing robots are to staff. A recent review<\/a> of robots in nursing found that, while there was a perception among nurses of increased efficiency and reduced workload, there is a lack of experiential evidence to confirm this \u2014 and technical malfunctions, communication difficulties and the need for ongoing training all presented challenges.\n <\/p>\n \n Tech companies are investing heavily health care: in addition to NVIDIA, the likes of Amazon<\/a> and Google<\/a> are both exploring new opportunities in the $9.8 trillion health care market<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n![\"Nurabot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757821631_148_tvgh-nurabot-5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Foxconn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757821631_482_tvgh-nurabot-4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Robots](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/w_860.jpeg\")
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