Humanoid robots controlled by surgeons did world-first operation on live pigs

Humanoid robots remotely controlled by surgeons removed gallbladders from live pigs in a preclinical trial published in the journal Nature, researchers said. The experiment used Unitree G1 humanoid robots to complete two minimally invasive surgeries, according to the University of California San Diego. Shanglei Liu, an assistant professor of surgery at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, said the robots represent a fraction of the cost and space required for specialized surgical robots, making them easy to deploy in rural areas, on the battlefield, or in space. The baseline Unitree G1 model starts at $13,500, though adding dexterous hands can push the cost beyond $67,000. That remains significantly cheaper than systems such as Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci Surgical System, which can cost between half a million dollars and several million dollars and weigh about 1,800 pounds. The Unitree robots stand 5 feet tall and weigh 60 pounds. Researchers said the approach could eventually allow surgeons to remotely perform robotic-assisted surgical care in smaller hospitals and clinics that lack resources for expensive specialized robots.