In an operating room at UC San Diego, a pair of humanoid robots quietly made medical history. Surgeons and engineers at the university say they have completed what they are calling a world first: teleoperated humanoid robots performing two live surgeries in a preclinical trial. One operation was a gallbladder removal performed by a human-robot team, and a second procedure was carried out by two robots working side by side, a proof-of-concept for mobile surgical platforms that could someday bring advanced care into under-resourced settings.
How the Trial Played Out
According to the University of California, San Diego, the team used two teleoperated humanoid robots to complete both procedures in the preclinical study. In one case, a humanoid robot and a human surgical assistant teamed up on a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, while the other procedure put two robots on the same operation. Both surgeries were performed on large non-primate mammals. Researchers describe the work as an early step toward flexible platforms that could be deployed beyond major hospitals.
Meet Surgie, the Humanoid Surgeon
The robots, nicknamed Surgie, stand about 5 feet tall and weigh roughly 60 pounds, and the team adapted them to hold standard surgical instruments. As reported by Newswise, surgeons said the teleoperated humanoids could match the precision of specialized surgical systems in some measurements, although the team had to pause for multiple recalibrations during the operations. “We were surprised at how well Surgie meshed with our workspace and workflow,” co-author Nikita Thareja told the outlet.
Publication and Next Steps
The research appears in Nature under the title “Humanoid Surgeon: First in-vivo feasibility study,” and the authors have posted the paper, code and video on a Humanoid Surgeon site. According to the project page, the team combined benchtop testing, dry-lab user studies and live porcine procedures to benchmark humanoid performance against established surgical platforms. Senior author Michael Yip told the University of California, San Diego that the longer-term goal is to develop an autonomous surgical assistant and an integrated human-robot operating theatre to expand access in regions with limited staffing.
Limits and Questions
The researchers caution that humanoid platforms currently lag behind specialized systems in speed and reliability. The robots needed several recalibrations during surgery, which stretched procedure times, and communication latency still poses a challenge for fully remote use. News-Medical notes that the team expects continued engineering work to narrow those gaps. The authors also stress that human trials, regulatory review and extensive safety testing will be required long before any clinical rollout.
Why San Diego Is Watching
The project highlights UC San Diego’s push to fuse robotics and medicine through its Jacobs School of Engineering and the Center for the Future of Surgery. The team frames these early experiments as a glimpse of a possible future in which lighter, mobile humanoid robots help deliver critical procedures in places that lack full surgical staffs, rather than replacing human surgeons in big-city operating rooms.
