In July 2025, a research team from Johns Hopkins University in the United States announced that their AI surgical robot SRT-H can autonomously perform gallbladder removal surgery. The robot was trained using a "language-guided imitation learning" framework, using surgical videos of surgeons performing procedures on pig cadavers as data. It successfully completed eight sets of pig gallbladder and liver separation surgeries with 100% accuracy.
During testing, SRT-H demonstrated multi-tool usage capabilities such as grasping and cutting, as well as real-time adaptability. The anatomical differences in pig organs closely simulate the complex scenarios of human surgery. Although the procedure took slightly longer than when performed by a human surgeon, the research team stated that the gap could be narrowed with further technical optimization.
Unlike the Da Vinci system, which requires remote control by a surgeon, SRT-H achieves fully autonomous surgery. The global surgical robot market is currently valued at nearly $10 billion, with approximately 2.7 million robotic-assisted surgeries expected to be performed by 2024. Researchers believe that autonomous surgical robots could alleviate the shortage of surgeons, reduce human error, and provide stable services to regions with limited medical resources.
The study was funded by multiple institutions, and the next step will be to enhance its adaptability to complex scenarios and advance clinical applications.