Adjacent Domains
Adjacent domains are robotics fields that meet the same problems under their own safety and certification rules: driving, drones, surgery and space.
How each field shows it is safe enough
| Field | Scale | Evidence bar and record |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous vehicles | Waymo gave more than 500,000 fully autonomous rides a week in April 2026 Pichai 2026Alphabet earnings call, Q1 2026: Sundar Pichai's remarks. Sundar Pichai, Google blog (The Keyword), 29 April 2026. | Crash rates against human drivers: 95 percent fewer serious-injury-or-worse crashes over 271.3 million rider-only miles Waymo 2026Safety Impact. Waymo, Waymo Safety Impact hub, data through June 2026. |
| Drones | Zipline reports more than 3 million deliveries since 2016 Zipline n.d.Safety Facts. Zipline, Zipline, n.d.; accessed 2026-10-14. | Wins against named champions: Swift won races against each of three human champions Kaufmann et al. 2023Champion-level drone racing using deep reinforcement learning. Elia Kaufmann, Leonard Bauersfeld, Antonio Loquercio et al., Nature 620, 982-987, 2023. |
| Surgical robots | 11,710 da Vinci systems installed by June 30, 2026 Intuitive Surgical 2026Intuitive Announces Second Quarter Earnings. Intuitive Surgical, GlobeNewswire, 2026-07-16. | Clearance for each indication: Hugo cleared for urologic procedures on December 3, 2025 Medtronic 2025Medtronic announces FDA clearance of Hugo robotic-assisted surgery system for urologic surgical procedures. Medtronic, Medtronic Newsroom, 2025-12-03. |
| Space robots | AutoNav evaluated 88 percent of the 17.7 km Perseverance drove in its first Mars year Verma et al. 2023Autonomous robotics is driving Perseverance rover's progress on Mars. Vandi Verma, Mark W. Maimone, Daniel M. Gaines et al., Science Robotics 8(80), adi3099, 2023. | Autonomy added in bounded, verified steps: A digital twin verified over 500,000 telemetry variables before AI-planned drives NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2026NASA's Perseverance Rover Completes First AI-Planned Drive on Mars. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA/JPL news, 30 January 2026. |
- Autonomous Vehicles
Driving as a robotics problem, down to the long tail.
- Drones and Aerial Robotics
Autonomous flight, from state estimation to champion-level racing.
- Surgical Robotics
From da Vinci to Hugo and OTTAVA, authorized one indication at a time.
- Space Robotics
Robots where repair is impossible, from Mars to orbit.