Johns Hopkins teaches robot to perform a gallbladder removal on a realistic patient - The Robot Report

Johns Hopkins University has developed a surgical robot, the Surgical Robot Transformer-Hierarchy (SRT-H), capable of autonomously performing a complex phase of gallbladder removal surgery on a lifelike patient model. Unlike previous robotic systems that operated under rigid, pre-mapped conditions, SRT-H adapts in real time to individual anatomical variations and unexpected scenarios, responding to voice commands and corrections from the surgical team much like a novice surgeon learning from a mentor. Built using machine learning architecture similar to ChatGPT, the robot demonstrates human-like adaptability and understanding, marking a significant advancement toward clinically viable autonomous surgical systems. The robot was trained by analyzing videos of surgeons performing gallbladder surgeries on pig cadavers, supplemented with task-specific captions. It successfully executed a sequence of 17 intricate surgical tasks—such as identifying ducts and arteries, placing clips, and cutting tissue—with 100% accuracy, though it took longer than a human surgeon to complete the procedure. This achievement builds on prior work where the team