Published in the journal Nature on July 8, 2026, the breakthrough comes from a collaboration between engineers and surgeons at the University of California San Diego. The robots, nicknamed Surgie, stand just 5 feet tall and weigh only 60 pounds — a fraction of the size and cost of traditional robotic surgical systems, which typically weigh around 1,800 pounds and require dedicated operating rooms.
In the first procedure, a humanoid robot worked alongside a human surgeon as an assistant to remove a gallbladder. In the second, two humanoid robots operated side by side without any human in the sterile field, both teleoperated by surgeons at consoles. All procedures were performed on large non-primate mammals in a standard operating room with no retrofitting needed.
What makes Surgie different from existing surgical robots like the da Vinci system is its humanoid form factor. It can walk, grasp standard surgical tools, and perform the same range of motion as a human scrub nurse or surgeon. The team built simple adapters to let Surgie hold conventional instruments rather than requiring custom robotic tools. "We were surprised at how well Surgie meshed with our workspace and workflow," said study co-author Dr. Nikita Thareja, a general surgery resident at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
The researchers see three distinct paths forward. First, Surgie could serve as a fully teleoperated surgeon in remote or austere environments where no specialist is available. Second, it could act as an autonomous surgical assistant — fetching instruments, holding retractors, and cleaning up. Third, a pair of humanoid robots could work as a team to perform procedures under remote supervision, multiplying the reach of a single surgeon.
There are still limitations. The robots required recalibration several times during surgery, making procedures significantly longer than with dedicated robotic systems. However, the research team notes that the first robotic laparoscopic surgery took six hours; today it takes about 30 minutes. Latency in remote teleoperation also remains a challenge the team is actively working to solve.
Knowledge takeaway: Surgie is a 5-foot-tall, 60-pound humanoid robot that performed gallbladder surgery on live pigs using standard surgical tools; two different configurations were tested — one with a robot assisting a human surgeon, and one with two robots operating together; the proof-of-concept was published in Nature by UC San Diego researchers; humanoid robots could address the global surgeon shortage by bringing surgical capability to underserved regions.