Researchers Published In Vivo Feasibility Study of Humanoid Robots in Surgery

Researchers published an in vivo feasibility study of humanoid robots in surgery in the journal Nature. Zekai Liang, Nikita Thareja, Peihan Zhang and colleagues reported the work on July 8, 2026. The team developed a humanoid-based laparoscopic teleoperation framework using general-purpose instruments. They assessed its capabilities through benchtop characterization, dry-laboratory user studies spanning diverse surgical experience levels and in vivo porcine studies. Across these evaluations they quantify technical feasibility, task performance and clinical readiness relative to established surgical platforms. For the first time two teleoperated humanoid robots completed two surgeries during a preclinical trial on large non-primate mammals. 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. Procedures included clipping and gallbladder removal from the liver bed. This study shows that humanoid robots have a viable future in the field of surgery. You can imagine these robots being deployed in remote communities where staffing is challenging or in austere environments like search and rescue scenarios where a massive deployment of field medicine is needed in a short period of time said Yip who is a faculty member in the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.