Beyond da Vinci: Why versatile humanoid robots are the next frontier in surgery

In a medical breakthrough, researchers at the University of California San Diego have successfully used two teleoperated humanoid robots to complete surgical procedures during a preclinical trial. The proof-of-concept experiments, published this week in the journal Nature, represent the first demonstration of humanoid robots performing surgery.

In one procedure, a humanoid robot teamed with a human surgeon acting as an assistant to perform a gallbladder removal. A second surgery was carried out by two humanoid robots working side by side without any human surgical assistance. Both operations were performed on large non-primate mammals.

The researchers view this as an initial step toward integrating humanoid robots into operating rooms. “Remotely operated and autonomous humanoid robots have real potential for amplifying access to critical surgeries to which patients would otherwise not have access,” said Michael Yip, a faculty member in the UC San Diego Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a senior author of the paper. “This can help address the healthcare crisis not only in the United States, but also worldwide.”

Versatility could improve surgical access

Unlike dedicated platforms such as Intuitive Surgical‘s da Vinci Surgical System or Stryker‘s Mako Robotic Arm—which are large, heavy, and typically fixed in a single operating room—humanoid robots offer flexibility. “A procedure performed by a teleoperated humanoid robot is just as precise as one performed with a teleoperated surgical robotic system,” said Dr. Shanglei Liu, an assistant professor of surgery at the UC San Diego School of Medicine and a senior author. “It’s a fraction of the cost, and it takes a fraction of the space in an operating room. So it’s easy to deploy, anywhere from rural areas to the battlefield, and even to space.”

The team deliberately chose a common but challenging surgery—removing the gallbladder via laparoscopy—as a benchmark. “It’s what everybody in general surgery gets trained on,” Yip explained. Evaluating performance on this standard procedure allowed the researchers to measure advantages and challenges of using a humanoid robot as a doctor’s avatar.

Teleoperation challenges remain

Despite the success, several hurdles persist. The humanoid robots required recalibration multiple times during surgery, making procedures significantly longer than those performed with specialized systems. However, Liu noted that the first robotic laparoscopic surgery took six hours and now takes just 30 minutes—suggesting improvement will come with time.

The team used Unitree G1 humanoid robots, which have relatively small arms. “What we learned very quickly was that the G1, because of its small stature, its arms don’t move around as much,” Yip said. “When you’re doing surgery with manual tools, you need a lot of range. You have to reach over the patient’s body, especially if you’re working side by side with the person.”

Yip acknowledged that a humanoid robot is “a potentially good platform for many things, but an expert at nothing. It will not be as accurate as a da Vinci robot that was specially designed for that procedure. But it was accurate enough to complete the whole procedure through the humanoid. I think that is a great sign.”

Latency—the delay between the surgeon’s controller movement and the robot’s response—is also being addressed as the team explores longer-distance operations to remote communities.

Future autonomous surgical assistant

Beyond teleoperation, the researchers envision a broader role for humanoid robots in the operating room. Because they can walk and perform most physical tasks a human can, they could fetch tools for surgeons or clean up after procedures.

“One of our goals is to develop the autonomous surgical assistant,” Yip said. “Many communities struggle with adequate staffing on the surgical team, which means patients are not being treated. Our goal is an operating theatre of the future, where humanoid robots and humans work side by side as an integrated team to deliver procedures to those in need, both in traditional hospital settings as well as in non-traditional, field medicine scenarios.”

Looking ahead, Yip sees potential to transfer autonomous capabilities from dedicated surgical robots to humanoid platforms. “If I could have the autonomous procedure that I designed to work on the da Vinci robot, basically copy and paste it, and now it works on a humanoid robot,” he said.

The researchers emphasized that this work would not have been possible without close collaboration between engineers and surgeons, and the support of the UC San Diego Center for the Future of Surgery.

The source for this article is https://www.therobotreport.com/beyond-da-vinci-why-versatile-humanoid-robots-are-next-frontier-surgery/.