Humanoid Robots Perform Live Surgery for the First Time in UC San Diego Trial

UC San Diego researchers published the first-ever demonstration of teleoperated humanoid robots completing live surgical procedures, including a gallbladder removal by a two-robot team with no human at the table. The proof-of-concept, published in Nature on July 8, opens the door to bringing surgical access to remote and underserved communities.

For the first time in medical history, humanoid robots have performed live surgical procedures on large mammals, researchers at the University of California San Diego report in the July 8 issue of Nature. The preclinical trial demonstrates that teleoperated humanoid robots — lighter, cheaper, and more versatile than traditional surgical systems — could one day deliver critical operations to patients in remote clinics, disaster zones, and military field hospitals where surgeons are scarce.

The study tested two configurations. In the first, a humanoid robot handled surgical instruments while a human surgeon stood at the table as an assistant, retracting tissue and supporting the dissection. In the second, more audacious setup, two humanoid robots worked side by side to complete a full laparoscopic cholecystectomy — a gallbladder removal — with no human hands anywhere near the operating table. Every motion was still directed by a remote human operator, but the physical execution belonged entirely to the machines.

The robot, nicknamed Surgie, was built on a Unitree G1 chassis. It stands roughly 1.5 meters tall and weighs only 27 kilograms — a fraction of the 800-kilogram cart-based systems like the da Vinci that dominate surgical robotics today. That weight difference is not trivial. A 27-kilogram machine that can be wheeled through a standard doorway, set up without a dedicated operating suite, and operated over a standard network connection does not need to live inside a major hospital. It can travel to where the patient is.

Michael Yip, a senior author on the paper and faculty member in UC San Diego's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, framed the goal as solving a geography problem, not a competence problem. Remotely operated and eventually autonomous humanoid robots could amplify access to critical surgeries for patients who currently have none. "The world does not have a shortage of surgical skill. It has a shortage of surgical skill in the right place at the right time," Yip said.

Dr. Shanglei Liu, one of the surgeons on the project, reported that the teleoperated humanoid robot matched the precision of established surgical platforms already in thousands of operating rooms worldwide. Unlike specialized robotic surgery systems that perform a single function, humanoid robots are general-purpose machines that could be repurposed across a wide range of procedures and clinical tasks.

The proof-of-concept arrives at a moment when the global surgical robotics market is projected to reach $9.6 billion by 2033, driven as much by access gaps as by technology. Yip envisions the platform deployed in remote communities where staffing is challenging, or in austere environments like search-and-rescue scenarios requiring mass field medicine on short notice. The Pentagon has already flagged the hardware for its potential dual-use military-medical applications, noting that the Unitree G1 chassis used in the trial is manufactured by a Chinese robotics firm — a detail that has drawn the attention of defense planners tracking the convergence of humanoid robotics and battlefield medicine.

Sources: UC San Diego Today, WorldAtNet, TechTimes