The medical robotics industry is entering a new era. With the global market projected to grow from $13.7B in 2025 to over $27B by 2030, medical device manufacturers (OEMs) face a critical question: how do you build a robotic platform that is not only mechanically precise, but seamlessly integrated into the full clinical ecosystem?
That question is exactly what Kinova and RTI set out to answer together.
Kinova's KIMA™ medical robotic arm – set to be officially unveiled at the upcoming Society of Robotic Surgery (SRS) 2026 annual meeting this July – was not designed as a standalone device. It was engineered from the ground up as a medical-grade integration platform, with native support for RTI Connext® as a key connectivity option within its architecture.
KIMA is built to serve the full spectrum of clinical applications – from diagnostics and patient care to minimally invasive procedures and surgery. This breadth is the core of the Kinova–RTI partnership: making it radically easier for OEMs to connect KIMA to any medical solution it belongs to – imaging systems, AI pipelines, haptic controllers, clinical software, and beyond.
Modern clinical environments are complex, multi-system ecosystems spanning diagnostics, care delivery, and interventional procedures. Real-time haptic feedback, AI-assisted guidance, and teleoperation all demand ultra-fast, deterministic data loops running at up to 1 kHz. Traditional network architectures, built around centralized brokers and industrial controllers, were never designed for this level of performance or interoperability.
The result is a bottleneck that slows development cycles, increases integration risk, and limits what OEMs can build on top of a medical robotic platform – no matter how capable the hardware.
A Data-Centric Architecture Built for MedTech
KIMA's Robot Control Library (RCL) integrates natively with RTI Connext, implementing a data-centric publish-subscribe model where every component – sensors, actuators, AI modules, visualization systems – communicates directly and in real time without routing through a central broker. For OEMs, this means KIMA doesn't just plug into their solution; it speaks the same language as the rest of their platform from day one.
Proven Live at SRS 2026: Multi-Robot Orchestration Demo
At SRS 2026 in Miami, Kinova and RTI will showcase a live demonstration that highlights the power of this integration in action. A single controller will simultaneously operate three KIMA robotic arms – with KIMA's RCL managing real-time command and control of each robot, while RTI Connext continuously reports the status of all three arms in real time. The demo illustrates how seamlessly KIMA and RTI Connext work together to give OEMs reliable, scalable control over complex multi-robot clinical configurations.
Accelerating OEM Development by 12–18 Months
By combining KIMA's RCL with RTI Connext connectivity, KIMA arrives as a pre-validated, integration-ready platform. OEMs don't need to solve the hard problems of real-time networking and data interoperability from scratch. Kinova and RTI have already done that work together – giving development teams a running start and cutting 12 to 18 months from their time-to-market.
KIMA is Kinova's answer to the most persistent challenge in medtech robotics: closing the gap between a world-class robotic platform and a fully integrated clinical solution. Whether the application is diagnostics, patient care, or complex intervention, KIMA with RTI Connext at its core is designed explicitly to make that integration fast, safe, and scalable across the full spectrum of medical use cases.
For medical OEMs building the next generation of surgical platforms, the foundation is already there.
Ready to Design an Interconnected, Ultra-Fast Surgical System?
Do not let network latency or complex data infrastructures stall your next-generation platform. Discover how the synergy between the KIMA surgical arm and the RTI Connext framework can accelerate your time-to-market while securing your critical data streams.
