Humanoid Robot Performs Surgery on a Pig — But the Lead Surgeon Was Still Human
After entering factory floors, humanoid robots have now stepped into the operating room. The international top-tier journal Nature recently published a paper titled “Feasibility Study of Living-Subject Surgical Procedures Performed by Humanoid Robots.” The research team brought a Unitree G1 humanoid robot into the operating room, equipped it with standard laparoscopic surgical instruments designed for human surgeons, and used it to perform standard laparoscopic cholecystectomies (gallbladder removals) on two live pigs. This study has been described as the world’s first living-subject surgery performed using a humanoid robot.
However, the two surgeries were not performed autonomously by the humanoid robot. The research team conducted a systematic evaluation of the humanoid robot’s capabilities in laparoscopic surgical tasks and developed a laparoscopic teleoperation framework based on the humanoid platform. The surgeries followed standard laparoscopic workflows, performed by a console surgeon and an assistant. The humanoid robot was nicknamed “Surgie.”
To ensure consistency, the same senior surgeon operated the humanoid robot platform from the console for all procedures. The assistant — another senior surgeon or a clinical researcher with laparoscopic experience — controlled the camera, provided tissue retraction, and adjusted instruments. During the first surgery, a second humanoid robot was briefly used for camera holding and retraction. In both surgeries, the vast majority of auxiliary work was provided by the human assistant.
The paper noted that both surgeries were completed without major complications. The first surgery had no significant intraoperative complications. The second surgery experienced minor bile leakage and liver bed bleeding, both resolved through suction and electrocoagulation.
Comparative evaluations showed that participants using the humanoid robot platform demonstrated improved performance over manual operation in ring-transfer and object-relocation tasks, though still lagging behind the more mature da Vinci system. Surgeons reported a noticeable gap between technical feasibility and clinical readiness, citing limitations in the humanoid robot’s range of motion, force output, frequent recalibration requirements, and intermittent overheating issues. Additionally, integrating humanoid robots into sterile operating room environments presented extra challenges.