In a world first, doctors successfully completed not one, but two surgeries with the use of remotely controlled humanoid robots. The proof-of-concept preclinical trial involved gallbladder removals in large, non-primate mammals. A humanoid robot and a human attendant completed one procedure while a pair of robots conducted the second one..
Lifesaving, robotically assisted surgical procedures are commonplace in many medical facilities, but they have limitations. Many of these multiarmed devices are massive systems weighing over 1,800 pounds, and require specialized teams to install them into retrofitted operating rooms. They’re also typically only designed with one type of procedure in mind. In comparison, humanoid robots are what their name implies. At about five feet tall and weighing only 60 pounds, the surgery bots (nicknamed “Surgie”) are comparatively small, nimble, customizable, and much more affordable. With the proper training and technological advancements, fleets of Surgies could one day deploy to critically under-resourced communities.
“Remotely operated and autonomous humanoid robots have real potential for amplifying access to critical surgeries to which patients would otherwise not have access,” Michael Yip, an engineer at the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego), said in a statement. “This can help address the healthcare crisis not only in the United States, but also worldwide.”
Yip and his colleagues recently detailed their groundbreaking trial in a study published in the journal Nature. Although the team needed to design adapters to allow each robot to hold surgical tools, operators said controlling them from afar felt unexpectedly natural.
“We were surprised at how well Surgie meshed with our workspace and workflow,” said UC San Diego surgeon Nikita Thareja.
“It’s a fraction of the cost and it takes a fraction of the space in an operating room. So it’s easy to deploy, anywhere from rural areas, to the battlefield, and even to space,” added UC San Diego surgeon and study co-author Shanglei Liu.
The first teleoperated humanoid surgeries did encounter a few early issues. The Surgie bots required recalibration multiple times, which greatly slowed the overall process compared to performing them with existing surgical systems. Latency between the controller and the robot also needs improvement. However, researchers are confident the technology will improve, and cite similar progress with robotic laparoscopic surgery. The first of those procedures took six hours, while today’s machine-assisted examples only take around 30 minutes.
A Surgie isn’t necessarily relegated to the operating table, either. The team envisions future humanoid robots could also assist by grabbing tools, or clean up following a surgery.
“One of our goals is to develop [an] autonomous surgical assistant,” Yip said. “Many communities struggle with adequate staffing on the surgical team, which means patients are not being treated. Our goal is an operating theater of the future, where humanoid robots and humans work side by side as an integrated team.”