Teleoperated Humanoid Robots Complete First Live Surgery in Animal Trials

Surgeons at UC San Diego performed the first live surgical procedures using teleoperated humanoid robots, according to a paper published in Nature. In one procedure, a humanoid robot and a human surgeon acting as an assistant completed a cholecystectomy. In a second, two humanoid robots worked together to finish the operation without human hands on the instruments. The trials were conducted on large non-primate mammals. The humanoid system, nicknamed Surgie and based on a Unitree G1 platform, stands 1.5 meters tall and weighs 27 kg, a fraction of the 800 kg and significant footprint required Operations took longer than standard procedures and required mid-procedure recalibration; latency between surgeon input and robot response remains a challenge. Dr. Michael Yip, UC San Diego engineering professor and co-