Meet 'Surgie': The humanoid robot that just successfully performed live surgery

Humanoid robots perform surgery for the first time as UC San Diego researchers complete gallbladder removal, marking a major breakthrough in AI and healthcare.

Humanoid robots have successfully performed surgery for the first time, marking a major breakthrough in robotics and healthcare. This is one of the biggest steps towards using human-like robots in operating rooms.

Humanoid robots perform surgery for the first time (Pexel/Representative image)(Pexel)

The surgery was carried out with the help of surgeons from the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego). The team worked together to test whether humanoid robots could safely perform real surgical procedures, according to the report by Independent.

In the first operation, one humanoid robot successfully removed a gallbladder. The procedure is called a laparoscopic gallbladder removal, where surgeons operate through very small cuts using special instruments.

Humanoid robots complete two surgeries

In a second experiment, two humanoid robots worked together and completed another laparoscopic gallbladder removal. This showed that multiple robots can work side by side during surgery. Both surgeries were performed on non-primate mammals. The robots have not yet been tested on humans. The surgeries were proof-of-concept experiments. This means the researchers wanted to show that the technology can work before moving to future stages of testing.

Researchers said humanoid robots have several advantages over today's specialised surgical robots. They believe these robots can perform many different medical tasks instead of just one type of surgery. The team said humanoid robots are much cheaper to build than many existing surgical robotic systems. This could reduce the cost of advanced healthcare. Researchers also said the robots require much less space inside an operating room. This makes them easier to install in hospitals with limited facilities.

Shanglei Liu, an assistant professor of surgery at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, operated the robot remotely during the study. The robot did not perform the surgery completely on its own.

Dr. Liu said the system costs only a fraction of current robotic surgery platforms and takes up much less room, according to Independent report. He said these robots could be used in rural hospitals where advanced medical equipment is often unavailable. Dr. Liu also said the robots could be deployed in battlefields during military operations. He added that the robots could even be useful for future space missions where human surgeons may not always be available.

How the Surgie robot works

The humanoid robots used in the study are nicknamed "Surgie." At present, Surgie robots are controlled remotely by trained surgeons. This process is called teleoperation, where a human surgeon directs every movement.

Researchers hope future advances in artificial intelligence will allow these robots to perform surgeries more independently. Dr. Yip said one of the team's biggest goals is to create an autonomous surgical assistant. He said many hospitals and communities face shortages of trained surgical staff, according to the report by Independent. As a result, many patients do not receive treatment on time.

Researchers imagine future operating rooms where human surgeons and humanoid robots work together as one team. They believe this teamwork could improve healthcare in hospitals as well as in emergency situations outside hospitals, such as disaster zones or field medicine. The research was published on Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature. The paper is titled "In vivo feasibility study of humanoid robots in surgery."