How a Breakthrough in Autonomous Surgery Is Reshaping Medicine
A robot just performed complex surgery on a pig — alone, calmly, and with the precision of a veteran surgeon, marking a leap toward a future where AI saves lives in operating rooms worldwide.
In a dimly lit lab at Stanford University, a robot with delicate, articulated arms performed something once thought impossible: it operated on a living animal—without human hands guiding it, without a surgeon at the console, and without a pre-programmed script. The patient? A pig. The procedure? A complex laparoscopic surgery. The robot’s name: SRT-H, short for Surgical Robot Transformer-Hierarchy. And what it did that day wasn’t just groundbreaking—it was a glimpse into the future of medicine.
This wasn’t the first time a robot had performed surgery. For years, systems like the da Vinci Surgical System have allowed surgeons to operate with enhanced precision through robotic assistance. But those are teleoperated machines—remote-controlled tools. The surgeon is still in full control, moving the robot’s arms like a high-tech puppeteer.
