A general-purpose Unitree Robotics G1 humanoid robot has completed laparoscopic gallbladder removal surgeries on two live pigs via remote teleoperation — the first time a general-purpose humanoid robot has performed a standard live microsurgery procedure, according to a paper published in Nature1.
The research was led by a team at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), with doctoral student Liang Zekai serving as first author and corresponding author. Liang is pursuing a PhD in Professor Michael C. Yip's lab at UCSD's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Shanglei Liu, an assistant professor of surgery at UCSD School of Medicine, also participated in the work.
The team brought two G1 robots, nicknamed "Surgie," into the operating room. The G1 stands 152 centimeters tall and weighs approximately 27 kilograms. Engineers designed custom grippers allowing the robots to directly hold standard laparoscopic surgical instruments. A teleoperation framework mapped the surgeon's hand movements at a console to the robots' wrists.
In the second surgery, two G1 units divided labor: one held the endoscope while the other operated instruments, all under remote control by the surgeon. The first surgery took approximately 56 minutes with no major intraoperative complications. The second surgery's console operation time was approximately 32 minutes. During the second procedure, minor bile spillage and liver bed bleeding occurred but were managed with suction and electrocautery. The number of robot repositionings in the second surgery dropped from eight to four.
The paper highlighted the G1's cost advantage: the base model is priced at about $13,500, compared with a da Vinci Surgical System that can cost upwards of 10 million yuan (approximately $1.48 million) and weigh over 800 kilograms, requiring specially modified operating rooms.
However, the study documented critical limitations. The paper reported communication latency, frequent recalibration needs, limited arm range of motion, intermittent overheating, and sterilization shortcomings — the G1 lacks components capable of withstanding high-temperature and high-pressure sterilization, and the team used sterile gloves as temporary protection.
Professor Michael C. Yip said the experiment was "the first step toward introducing humanoid robots into the operating room". The paper noted the work validated preliminary feasibility of humanoid robots in surgical settings but acknowledged the system remains far from clinical human application.
ANALYSIS The cost differential — roughly two orders of magnitude between the G1 and the da Vinci system — is the central proposition underlying the paper's framing of general-purpose humanoid robots as a potential alternative in surgical contexts, particularly for resource-constrained or remote healthcare settings. ANALYSIS The documented limitations, especially around sterilization and latency, represent fundamental engineering gaps that separate a proof-of-concept animal study from any path toward human clinical use.