Robots are primarily concerned with generating specific motion of the robot joints, simultaneously allowing tooling or sensors to perform certain functions, either when the arm is moving or at specific operational configurations. The arm and attached tooling may perform the operations themselves (such as painting) or carry parts to other devices which perform the operations.

The applications of robotics in recent years have emerged beyond the field of manufacturing or industrial robots itself. Robotic applications are now widely used in medical, transport, underwater, entertainment and military sectors. In the medical field, these applications should be emphasised in view of the increasing challenges owing to the variety of findings in the field of medicine, which requires new inventions to ease work process. The objective of this review paper is to study and present the past and on-going research in medical robotics with emphasis on rehabilitation (assistive care) and surgery robotics which are certainly the two main practical fields where robot applications are commonly used presently. The study found that rehabilitation and surgery robotics applications grow extensively with the finding of new invention, as well as research that is being undertaken and to be undertaken.

A manual robot is a type of manipulation robotic system that requires complete human intervention for its operation. The manual type of robotic system requires a particular kind of human control, a system seldom found in any other type of robotic systems. Manual manipulators comprise a range of robotic systems, from basic to highly advanced, each having a specific control system according to its application.