Humanoid robots successfully perform surgery in world-first trial
Human robots have performed a world-first surgery on a pig in a groundbreaking trial.
The humanoid bots, nicknamed “Surgie”, carried out laparoscopic surgery on a domestic pig under general anaesthetic as part of a pre-clinical trial in the US.
The world-first surgery was conducted on a domestic pig. Supplied
Surgeons and engineering teams say the experiment is the first step in making the technology a reality in operating theatres.
The bots carried out several tasks throughout the procedure, with one using instruments and the other assisting in removing the gallbladder, while a human surgeon stood behind the scenes controlling the platform.
Epworth Healthcare urologist Professor Declan Murphy told 9News the surgery was “an exciting advance”.
“Not only do we have regular robots that we’ve been using in hospital like ours for many years, but we have human form robots,” he said.
“Now there were glitches that had to be recalibrated, the procedure took a long time, so it was a proof of concept.”
The latest development was published this week in a prestigious medical journal as surgeons collaborated with engineers at the University of California.
It follows promising trials recently of surgical robots being trained to work autonomously.
Experts behind these humanoid robots say they hold promise in helping remote communities and in addressing staff shortages, however not within the immediate future.
“I think to get the point of very complex dissection of human anatomy with all the intricacies and bleeding and so on, we’re still quite a way away.”
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