What if a robot handed over a surgical instrument the moment a surgeon said "scalpel"? A scene that until now belonged in science fiction is close to becoming reality. It is one of the functions built into the humanoid surgical assistant robot being developed by Samsung Medical Center, which was selected as the lead institution for the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Korean ARPA-H Project.
Samsung Medical Center said on the 9th that it will hold a public demonstration of the humanoid surgical assistant robot on the 16th at the Samsung Life Insurance Ilwon Station Building. The robot is being developed as part of a project titled "Development of a Humanoid Physical AI-Based Surgical Assistant Robot for an Efficient Surgical Environment." Humanoid surgical assistant robots are under development in various parts of the world, but there has been no case of demonstrating two surgical robots collaborating with humans.
The hospital formed a consortium called ORchestra with Rainbow Robotics, Aidin Robotics, Hahaeho, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences and Technology, Seoul National University, the National Cancer Center and Jeonbuk National University Hospital, and has spent about a year developing the humanoid surgical assistant robot. The project is currently at the stage of verifying the robot's ability to deliver and retrieve instruments, operate an endoscope, retract tissue, understand voice commands and safely stop and recover in a simulated surgical environment. Commercialization will be pursued after repeated performance testing, simulated and preclinical trials, usability evaluations by medical staff, a GMP quality system, clinical trials and medical device approval.
The first demonstration will show the humanoid surgical assistant robot gripping surgical instruments itself. It will demonstrate a sequence of incising, dissecting and suturing biological tissue. The robot replicates the movements of the operating surgeon as the surgeon works while watching a monitor. Robot No. 1 performs the role of an operating room nurse, while Robot No. 2 simultaneously performs the roles of a surgical assistant physician and a nurse.
Professor Jung Yong-ki said, "It is not yet at the stage where the robot judges the patient's condition on its own and operates automatically," but added, "Attendees will be able to see intuitively how successfully a robot can assist a person in surgery." Because the movements of a person's hands and arms are converted into the robot's coordinate system and reproduced inside the operating room, the professor explained, visitors will see precise surgery in which the medical staff's control inputs are expressed in small units of motion.
The second demonstration will show the humanoid surgical assistant robot taking over tasks previously performed by people — circulating surgical instruments, maintaining the endoscopic field of view and retracting tissue — to assist the operating surgeon. In an environment simulating open surgery, participants will also be given hands-on time to operate the humanoid surgical assistant robot themselves.
Research on introducing humanoid surgical assistant robots into operating rooms remains at the early proof-of-concept and validation stage worldwide. Korea has entered this early-stage competition and is working to open up the market. According to the hospital, this demonstration focuses less on having the robot execute individual motions than on linking the workflow the way a person who understands the entire surgical process would act. It differs from efforts in other countries in that it implements an operating room management system in which multiple humanoid surgical assistant robots share the context of the surgery and cooperate with people as a single team.
Jung said, "If humanoid surgical assistant robots can help people in environments where it is difficult for humans to perform surgery, and in areas involving repetitive and grueling labor, we can create a surgical environment that is more favorable for patients." He added, "We expect this to allow surgery to be run more stably with limited medical personnel, and to help fill staffing gaps in night, emergency and essential care settings where it is hard to secure skilled surgical assistants."
