Overview
- UC San Diego teams reported in a Nature paper that teleoperated humanoid robots completed two surgeries in a preclinical trial, including a human-robot gallbladder removal and a robot-robot operation on large non-primate mammals.
- The robots, nicknamed Surgie, are about 5 feet tall, weigh roughly 60 pounds, are mobile, and were fitted with adapters so they could use standard surgical instruments inside normal operating-room workflows.
- Surgeons who teleoperated the systems said surgical precision matched that of established teleoperated surgical platforms, though the team emphasized these were proof-of-concept demonstrations and not clinical trials.
- The experiments revealed clear technical barriers: the robots needed multiple recalibrations during procedures, operations took longer than with current specialized systems, and communication latency remains a concern for long-distance teleoperation.
- Researchers say the compact, versatile design could expand access to advanced surgery in remote or resource-limited settings and that next steps include reducing latency, improving reliability, validating safety, and pursuing regulatory and clinical translation.