Minute Insight: Can Robots Do Surgery Without Human Help?

Johns Hopkins researchers successfully and autonomously performed laparoscopic surgery on a pig using the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot.

Minute Insight
• Source: Informa/Alamy

Autonomous surgery performed by robots is likely many years away from human applications, but a robot at Johns Hopkins University successfully performed intricate laparoscopic surgery on pig tissues.

The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR), “excelled at suturing two ends of intestine,” an intricate task called anastomosis that requires...

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