Distalmotion

Distalmotion builds robotic surgery systems, with the DEXTER Robotic Surgery System as its flagship platform. Founded in 2012 as a spin-off from EPFL's Robotics Lab and headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, the company designs for a deployment constraint that shapes most of its engineering: the system has to fit hospitals as they exist today. DEXTER is built to move between operating rooms, requires no dedicated infrastructure, and is deployable in outpatient facilities. It also supports a mode switch between fully robotic and laparoscopic approaches mid-procedure, so the surgeon can change hands-on technique without abandoning the platform.

That flexibility implies engineering work across the usual surgical robotics stack - manipulator hardware and sterility boundaries, real-time control and instrument tracking, integration with existing OR workflows and hospital equipment, and the usability layer that lets a surgeon transition between modalities without re-setup. The constraint of portability (a cart that moves between rooms rather than a fixed installation) trades off against things like setup time, calibration, and re-sterilization cycles, and the system is designed around those trade-offs rather than around a purpose-built OR.

The team is over 150 professionals spanning 25+ nationalities and 15+ languages, grown from an original founding team of four. Beyond the device itself, the company runs Dexter Academy, a training program for surgeons and staff using DEXTER, which means clinical workflow, ergonomics, and adoption are treated as engineering problems alongside the hardware and software. The stated goal is wider access to minimally invasive robotic surgery regardless of where a patient is treated.