With the world’s first fully autonomous robot performing a surgery without human assistance, a revolutionary step towards the future of surgery has been taken. A robot called SRT-H (Surgical Robot Transformer-Hierarchy) has been trained by researchers at Johns Hopkins University to remove gallbladders with 100% success. This robot was as accurate and skilled as skilled human surgeons, demonstrating remarkable precision.
Videos of previous surgeries were used to train SRT-H, giving it access to real medical professionals’ experience. After assimilating this knowledge, it was able to follow voice instructions to successfully remove gallbladders, much like a surgical team assisting a lead surgeon. With remarkable accuracy, the robot was able to complete 17 tasks, including severing parts, placing clips, and identifying ducts and arteries.
Azwl Krieger, a medical roboticist who participated in the study, stated, “This breakthrough brings us closer to autonomous systems that can work in the unpredictable world of patient care.” During surgery, SRT-H showed that it could not only follow a script but also change course in real time, making choices based on its observations. The ability of the robot to modify its movements in the event of unforeseen circumstances during the procedure is highlighted by this dynamic learning model, which represents a significant advancement in robotic surgery.
The research has enormous potential for future human applications, even though the surgeries were performed on realistic human-like models. With comparable success rates, SRT-H was also able to carry out the same process on pig organs. With additional training, the robot may eventually be able to operate on its own without human oversight, according to researchers.
The SRT-H robot responds to spoken commands and keeps learning thanks to machine learning architectures that are similar to those used in AI models like ChatGPT. The outcomes were similar even though the robot operates more slowly than human surgeons. It is anticipated that this groundbreaking work will open the door for autonomous surgical robots, which could revolutionise healthcare within the next ten years.