The Surgie twins never attended medical school, but the 5-foot-tall humanoids recently helped perform gallbladder surgery, a milestone that could mark the beginning of an entirely new chapter in medicine.

For more than two decades, robotic surgery has been equated with highly specialized systems such as Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci platform: large machines with multiple robotic arms that need plenty of space. But with the creation of humanoids with advanced dexterity, things are moving in a different direction. Compact, general-purpose humanoid robots can operate inside operating rooms designed for humans, using many of the same instruments and workflows that surgeons already rely on.

In a preclinical study led by engineers and surgeons at the University of California San Diego, two teleoperated humanoid robots, both nicknamed Surgie, completed two laparoscopic gallbladder removals on pigs. In one procedure, a humanoid worked alongside a human surgical assistant. In the second, two humanoids worked together as a surgical team, marking the first reported instance of two humanoid robots completing surgery side by side.

The robots were never autonomous. Every movement was directed remotely by experienced surgeons wearing stereo headsets and manipulating hand controllers. But researchers say the achievement demonstrates something equally important: today’s humanoid robots have become precise enough, and practical enough, to function in an operating room, where deviations of millimeters can spell the difference between a successful and unsuccessful surgery.

“We were surprised at how well Surgie meshed with our workspace and workflow,” study co-author Dr. Nikita Thareja, a general surgery resident at UC San Diego School of Medicine, said in a university release.

That compatibility is one of the central ideas driving what roboticists increasingly call embodied intelligence, the notion that AI becomes dramatically more useful once it can physically interact with the world.

Researchers at UC San Diego have been working toward that vision for years. In 2024, faculty members discussed how advances in AI, perception, locomotion and dexterous manipulation were converging to produce humanoid robots capable of performing meaningful work in environments designed for people. Surgery represented one of the field’s most ambitious goals because it demands extraordinary precision, coordination and safety.

The procedures remain slower than conventional robotic surgery. Researchers had to stop repeatedly to recalibrate the robots, and communication delays between the surgeon’s controls and the robot’s movements remain an obstacle, particularly for operations performed over long distances. But the authors note that early robotic surgery systems faced many of the same growing pains. The first robotic laparoscopic procedure required roughly six hours. Today, similar operations routinely take about 30 minutes.

“This study shows that humanoid robots have a viable future in the field of surgery,” said Michael Yip, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC San Diego and one of the study’s senior authors. He envisions humanoids eventually assisting in remote communities, disaster zones and military field hospitals where access to specialized surgical systems is limited or nonexistent.

And because humanoids can walk, carry equipment and manipulate ordinary tools, researchers foresee future versions retrieving instruments, positioning cameras, assisting bedside staff and cleaning operating rooms after procedures. Rather than replacing surgeons, they could become flexible members of the surgical team, capable of shifting from assistant to operator depending on the situation.

That versatility distinguishes humanoids from today’s surgical robots. Existing systems excel because they were engineered for one highly refined task. Humanoids promise something different: a single machine capable of performing many jobs inside a hospital.

Clinical use likely remains years away. The surgeries were performed on animals under carefully controlled research conditions, and the system still faces significant engineering hurdles. The robots require greater precision, improved reliability, faster response times and more seamless integration into sterile operating rooms before they can be considered for human patients. The researchers emphasize that this was a feasibility study designed to establish whether humanoid surgery was possible, not whether it is ready.