World First: Unitree G1 Humanoid Robot Completes Living-Subject Surgery, Gen-Z Team Published in Nature

Bot Telegraph, July 12 — Chinese humanoid robots have achieved a major breakthrough in medicine. The international top-tier journal Nature has officially published a study on the feasibility of humanoid robots performing surgical procedures on living subjects. The research team used a Unitree G1 general-purpose humanoid robot to successfully complete two cholecystectomies (gallbladder removals) on live pigs. The team installed custom fixtures on the robot’s end effectors, enabling them to operate standard laparoscopic surgical instruments, while surgeons controlled the procedure remotely from a console. The first surgery was performed by a single G1 as lead surgeon with physician assistance, completed smoothly in 56 minutes. The second surgery was even more ambitious — two G1 units collaborated, one holding the endoscope and the other operating instruments, completing the entire procedure without human intervention in just 32 minutes.

This marks the first time globally that a general-purpose humanoid robot has performed a complete standard minimally invasive surgery on a living subject. Unlike the da Vinci surgical system, which costs millions and weighs over 800 kg, the Unitree G1 weighs only 27 kg, uses standard surgical instruments, and requires no specialized operating room modifications.

The first author of the paper is Liang Zekai, a Chinese doctoral student born after 2000, currently pursuing his PhD at the University of California, San Diego. Industry experts note that this research demonstrates the immense potential of general-purpose humanoid robots in precision operations and could significantly reduce surgical robot costs, accelerating medical accessibility.