UC San Diego humanoid robots perform first live‑subject surgery

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego used two tele‑operated humanoid robots, dubbed “Surgie,” to carry out laparoscopic gallbladder removals on live pigs. The pre‑clinical study, published in Nature on 8 July 2026, demonstrated that the robots could execute all core steps of a cholecystectomy—tissue retraction, dissection, clip application and organ extraction—while being continuously controlled in real time by experienced surgeons.

One procedure paired a robot with a human surgeon, and a second used two robots working side‑by‑side as a fully robotic team. The robots were modified Unitree G1 units, about 1.2–1.5 m tall and weighing roughly 32 kg, equipped with Dex3 robotic hands, 3‑D LiDAR and depth cameras. The experiment highlighted technical challenges such as latency, repeated recalibration and the need for further safety validation before any human use.

The authors suggest that compact, lower‑cost humanoid platforms could expand surgical access in remote or resource‑limited settings, offering an alternative to large, dedicated systems like the da Vinci Surgical System. However, they stress that human surgeons retained full control throughout and that significant engineering hurdles remain before clinical deployment.