ARTHUR sounds like the name of a distinguished British gentleman, but the newest arrival at Royal Berkshire Hospital in England doesn’t have a British pedigree. It is a Danish robotic ultrasound system that examines patients’ joints for signs of rheumatoid arthritis, potentially giving doctors a head start against a disease that can cause permanent damage.

The hospital has become the first in the United Kingdom to use ARTHUR, a robotic arm equipped with ultrasound technology and paired with AI. Its arrival in August 2026 marked another milestone for a technology that spent nearly a decade evolving from a Danish research project into a clinical tool used across Europe.

Its expanding adoption points to the technology’s practical appeal, particularly as health systems struggle with specialist shortages and growing patient demand. For patients experiencing symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, the wait to see a specialist can stretch for months. That delay can be consequential. The disease can cause irreversible joint damage if left untreated, making early detection and intervention essential.

“Currently, there are so many people referred and few and fewer rheumatologists,” said Danish rheumatologist Soren Andreas Just, who co-created ARTHUR with robotics professor Thiusius Rajeeth Savarimuthu. The technology grew out of a practical problem: Too many patients were waiting too long to see too few specialists.

The project began in 2017 through research at the University of Southern Denmark and Odense University Hospital. The creators sought to automate ultrasound examinations, a repetitive procedure requiring considerable time and expertise.

Their collaboration led to the founding of ROPCA in 2019, transforming a university research project into a medical technology company. By 2022, ARTHUR had received CE marking, allowing its use in European clinical settings. In 2024, it entered routine clinical use at Svendborg Hospital in Denmark, an important step in demonstrating its practical value beyond research.

The technology subsequently expanded into other European countries before reaching Royal Berkshire Hospital in August 2026, its first installation in the United Kingdom.

ARTHUR also has its sights set on the United States. In August 2026, ROPCA announced that ARTHUR and DIANA had received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, allowing the company to pursue American clinical and commercial partnerships. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, has already used ARTHUR for research, and its rheumatology specialists have expressed interest in bringing the technology into clinical practice.

ARTHUR has already performed more than 5,400 examinations involving 83,500 joints across six European countries, according to ROPCA.

German robotics manufacturer KUKA supplied the LBR Med robotic arm, a medical-grade device capable of making controlled, precise movements. According to KUKA, using an existing medically certified robotic platform helped ROPCA accelerate development rather than build the entire system from scratch.

Patients place their hands on a scanning surface and follow instructions displayed on a screen. A camera identifies the joints, while the robotic arm guides an ultrasound probe across the fingers, hands and wrists.

The ultrasound produces images of tissue beneath the skin, revealing inflammation and changes associated with arthritis. Doppler imaging can also identify increased blood flow, an important indicator of active inflammation.

ARTHUR’s companion AI software, DIANA, analyzes the images and generates a report that clinicians can use alongside symptoms, laboratory results and other findings. ROPCA says the system can examine 15 joints per hand and accommodate approximately four patients an hour.

ARTHUR performs the scans, DIANA interprets the images, and medical professionals remain responsible for diagnosis and treatment decisions.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the lining of joints. Unlike osteoarthritis, which is associated with joint degeneration, rheumatoid arthritis can produce widespread inflammation, swelling, pain and progressive damage.

Prompt treatment with disease-modifying medications can suppress inflammation, slow progression and improve the chances of sustained remission.

The disease also affects the feet, sometimes before significant hand symptoms appear. Although ARTHUR currently focuses on hands and wrists, evaluating painful or swollen foot joints remains important in a comprehensive clinical assessment.

A 2025 study involving 30 patients with established rheumatoid arthritis found that ARTHUR and DIANA demonstrated encouraging agreement with specialist assessments, although further refinement was needed. The robot successfully scanned 85.5% of the joints examined.

ARTHUR is part of a broader movement toward robotic assistance in medicine. Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci system, for example, enables surgeons to perform minimally invasive operations using robotic instruments controlled from a console. Unlike ARTHUR, it is designed for surgical intervention rather than diagnostic imaging, and it does not operate independently.