This paper surveys the scientific literature on present and future applications of robotics to health care. The term ‘health care’ refers to different forms of assistance rendered to people who are unable without such assistance to perform physical tasks that ‘healthy’ people accomplish unaided. Research efforts and accomplishments to date are concentrated in four main application areas: rehabilitation; patient transfer; assistance to surgery; and ‘microrobots’ suitable for use inside people. Some initial work has been done in other areas including robotic diagnosis and therapy.