World's 1st - Humanoids in the OR
"For the first time, two teleoperated humanoid robots have been used to complete two surgeries during a preclinical trial, researchers report in the July 8 issue of the journal Nature. The work is the result of a collaboration between a team of engineers and a team of surgeons at the University of California San Diego.
In one surgery, a human-robot team made up of a humanoid robot and a human surgeon acting as an assistant successfully performed a gallbladder removal. A second successful surgery was performed by two humanoid robots working side by side in a robot-robot team. Both procedures were performed on large non-primate mammals.
The proof-of-concept experiment is a first step toward introducing humanoid robots in the operating room, researchers said. These robots could first assist during procedures then later perform surgeries while teleoperated by surgeons.
There is a shortage of surgeons in parallel with growing patient needs, which leads to longer wait times, reduced access and greater healthcare disparities, said Michael Yip, a faculty member in the UC San Diego Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and one of the paper’s senior authors. “Remotely operated and autonomous humanoid robots have real potential for amplifying access to critical surgeries to which patients would otherwise not have access. This can help address the healthcare crisis not only in the United States, but also worldwide.”
Unlike specialized robotic surgery systems that can only perform one function, humanoid robots are versatile and could be used to perform a wide range of procedures and general tasks, the researchers said. These robots also are easier to deploy in remote areas and other challenging environments, where versatility is important."
Liang, Z., Thareja, N., Zhang, P. et al. In vivo feasibility study of humanoid robots in surgery. Nature (2026). Abstract:
"Recent advances in actuation, control and learning have rapidly pushed humanoid robots from a distant vision towards near-term real-world deployment. Healthcare is a particularly pressing domain, in which staffing shortages and increasing care demand are widening the gap between clinical workload and available skilled labour. Although current automation has largely focused on digital and logistical tasks22, much hospital work remains embodied, requiring mobility, manipulation and safe interaction in human-designed environments. Humanoid form factors offer unique potential, particularly for assisting with surgical tasks. Traditionally, robotic systems for surgery are purpose-built platforms such as Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci Surgical System, and it remains unclear how close current humanoid systems are to meeting the precision, control and safety requirements of minimally invasive surgery. Here we present a systematic evaluation of contemporary humanoid technology for laparoscopic surgical tasks. We develop a humanoid-based laparoscopic teleoperation framework using general-purpose instruments and assess its abilities through benchtop characterization, dry-laboratory user studies spanning diverse surgical experience levels and in vivo porcine studies. Across these evaluations, we quantify technical feasibility, task performance and clinical readiness relative to established surgical platforms. Together, our study provides an evidence-based assessment of current humanoid abilities and limitations for surgical applications, highlighting both their promise and key technical challenges that must be addressed before clinical deployment."
Project website: https://humanoid-surgeon.github.io/
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