Integrating AI and robotics to pioneer image-guided robotic procedures - one precisely placed needle at a time.
NDR Medical Technology, Ayer Rajah Crescent, Singapore - the 14-person deep-tech firm whose ANT-X became the first automated robot the U.S. FDA cleared to help surgeons access the kidney.
Most surgical robots ask a hospital to buy an entirely new imaging and sensing stack. NDR Medical Technology took the opposite route. Its Automated Needle Targeting (ANT) platform reads the fluoroscopy or CT images a hospital already produces, and uses AI to plan a path and align a needle for percutaneous procedures - the minimally invasive punctures used to reach a kidney, lung, liver or spine through a small opening in the skin.
The pitch to surgeons is deliberately modest: keep your scanner, add the precision. The company says the ANT system reaches needle-placement accuracy of up to about ±1mm by combining hardware and software, and can calibrate from a single X-ray image - cutting both setup time and the radiation dose a patient and operating-room staff absorb. In a field where every extra minute means more time under anesthesia and more exposure, those are the numbers clinicians actually feel.
The differentiating factor of our device is the ability to achieve navigation and alignment with any existing medical imaging equipment.
An interventional robot pairing C-arm fluoroscopy with AI software for safe, accurate percutaneous needle placement. FDA 510(k) cleared as the first automated device to aid kidney access for Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy (PCNL) - kidney stone removal.
A smart lesion targeting system that uses AI on CT-scan images to automate lesion detection, needle-path planning and needle targeting - extending the platform across lung, liver, kidney and spine procedures.
The underlying hardware-plus-software system for automated needle positioning and alignment, achieving up to ~±1mm accuracy using a hospital's existing imaging equipment and single-image calibration.
Rivals in needle guidance often depend on proprietary optical or electromagnetic sensors and lengthy pre-surgical calibration. NDR leans on imaging data the hospital already generates, automating calibration rather than adding it. The illustrative comparison below reflects the company's stated approach to setup and hardware dependence.
Bars indicate relative imaging compatibility & automated-setup advantage as described by the company - approximate, for illustration.
NDR's customers are hospitals and the clinicians inside them - urologists reaching the kidney, interventional radiologists placing biopsy needles, and, increasingly, spine surgeons. Clinical endorsements come from physicians including Prof. Jürgen Fütterer, Prof. Kazumi Taguchi and Prof. Yeoh Wei Sien.
The footprint is global for a company its size. The ANT-X system entered clinical use at Wakayama Medical University Hospital in Japan in 2023, with clinical partnerships spanning South Korea, Malaysia, China and India, plus research collaboration with Stanford University School of Medicine and VA Palo Alto.
The market it sits in - interventional and image-guided robotics - is shifting from freehand technique toward automated placement. That puts NDR alongside players such as Perfint Healthcare and XACT Robotics, and in the broader orbit of surgical-robotics giants like Intuitive Surgical and Medtronic.
NDR's wedge is compatibility. Rather than competing on raw robotic dexterity, it competes on fitting into rooms hospitals already have - a strategy suited to health systems wary of ripping out capital imaging equipment.
NDR sells AI-driven robotic systems to hospitals and reaches markets through distributors, strategic partners and joint ventures - including one with MicroPort in China. It is a capital-intensive, manufacturing-led model, deliberately slower than asset-light digital health, and built around regulatory milestones.
The team's core competence is translating medical images into robotic action: computer vision for lesion detection, path-planning algorithms, single-image calibration and the mechanical engineering to hit a sub-visible target reliably. Its ANT-C research won a JVIR Editor's Award.
The 2020 S$8M Series A was led by China's MicroPort Scientific, with government-linked SGInnovate, Kava Ventures and Japan's Real Tech Holdings participating - capital that came paired with distribution reach across Asia.
Alan Goh and Jason Ng found NDR Medical Technology in Singapore to bring robotics to image-guided intervention.
The team builds an early automated needle-targeting device integrating imaging modalities.
MicroPort leads the round; SGInnovate, Kava Ventures and Real Tech Holdings participate.
Named to Forbes Asia 100 To Watch and awarded an iF Design Award.
The ANT-C research paper wins the JVIR Editor's Award for Outstanding Laboratory Investigation.
ANT-X receives FDA 510(k) clearance; the platform completes its first Neurospine discoplasty in Singapore.
ANT-X - first automated robotic device to aid kidney access for PCNL (2023).
Cleared for kidney stone procedures in Europe.
Recognized among Asia's promising companies in 2021.
Industrial-design honor for a surgical robot most patients never see (2021).
Outstanding Laboratory Investigation for the ANT-C paper (2022).
Discoplasty successfully conducted in Singapore (June 2023).
We are trying to overcome the idea that robotic systems are difficult to adopt with a steep learning curve.
AI-empowered interventional robots - the ANT platform - that automate needle positioning and alignment for minimally invasive, image-guided surgical procedures.
ANT-X is an interventional robot that combines C-arm fluoroscopy with AI to place needles accurately. In 2023 it became the first automated robotic device to receive FDA 510(k) clearance to aid kidney access for percutaneous nephrolithotomy (kidney stone removal).
Its systems work with a hospital's existing imaging equipment rather than requiring proprietary optical or electromagnetic sensors, and it emphasizes automated calibration with a low learning curve for clinicians.
The company raised an S$8 million (about US$5.8 million) Series A in 2020 led by MicroPort Scientific, with SGInnovate, Kava Ventures and Real Tech Holdings participating.
It is headquartered in Singapore (75 Ayer Rajah Crescent) with a team of roughly 14 people and clinical partnerships across Asia, Europe and the US.