Teleoperated humanoid robots complete first-ever live surgery

Surgeons at UC San Diego just handed the scalpel to two humanoid robots, who went on to complete live surgical procedures for the first time in history. This milestone moves beyond the fixed robotic arms found in operating rooms today and hints at an operating room of the future where humans and humanoids work side by side.

Humanoid robots are already showing up in factories, warehouses, and even on battlefields, precisely because their human-like shape lets them operate in spaces built for people without any redesign. A Morgan Stanley report from late June projects that China, the current leader in the field, will produce 446,000 humanoid units annually by 2030, with full-size humanoids growing from 30% market share in 2026 to 70% by 2028.

UC San Diego's team wants to bring that same flexibility into the operating room. In one procedure, a humanoid robot and a human surgeon acting as an assistant completed a cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal). In a second, two humanoid robots worked together and finished the operation solo.

The trials, described in a paper published in Nature, were carried out on large non-primate mammals, but the achievement matters because it moves the technology from concept to something that has demonstrably handled real surgical tasks.

The researchers say their real target is the growing shortage of surgeons and the surgical backlogs it creates, especially in rural areas or regions far from major hospitals. Traditional surgical robots address none of that: they're bulky, expensive, and typically require rebuilding the operating room around them.

A conventional robotic system weighs around 800 kg (1,764 lb) and needs significant space. The humanoid system used here, nicknamed Surgie, looks to have started life as a Unitree G1, and stands just 1.5 m (about 5 ft) tall and weighs only 27 kg (60 lb) – compact enough to wheel into a small clinic or a field hospital.

"It's a fraction of the cost, and it takes a fraction of the space in an operating room," says Dr. Shanglei Liu, assistant professor of surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine and one of the study's lead authors, who personally operated one of the robots during the trials. "So it’s easy to deploy, anywhere from rural areas to the battlefield and even to space."

The surgeons control the robots remotely, using standard surgical tools fitted with adapters so the robotic hands can grip and maneuver them properly. Testing moved through stages: lab simulations, animal trials, and finally live surgery. The results are promising but not flawless – the robots needed recalibration mid-procedure, operations took longer than usual, and latency (the lag between a surgeon's hand movement and the robot's response) remains a challenge for any remote-controlled surgery.

That said, today's routine surgical robots also started out slow and clumsy. "This achievement reflects the power of bringing engineers and surgeon innovators together to solve meaningful clinical problems at our world-class training and research lab," says Dr. Ryan Broderick, interim director of UC San Diego's Center for the Future of Surgery.

The team envisions humanoids eventually doing more than assisting in surgery: fetching instruments, tidying the room, or working alongside human staff as full team members.

"Many communities struggle with adequate staffing on the surgical team, which means patients are not being treated," says Dr. Michael Yip, a UC San Diego engineering professor and co-author. "Our goal is an operating theater 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."

A short video of the project has been posted to the YouTube channel of UC San Diego's Advanced Robotics and Controls Lab, which we'll link to rather than embed as it contains graphic imagery of surgery.

Source: UC San Diego