"Robot performs first realistic surgery without human help"
The gallbladder removal procedure is much more complex, a minutes-long string of 17 tasks. The robot had to identify certain ducts and arteries and grab them precisely, strategically place clips, and sever parts with scissors.
SRT-H learned how to do the gallbladder work by watching videos of Johns Hopkins surgeons doing it on pig cadavers. The team reinforced the visual training with captions describing the tasks. After watching the videos, the robot performed the surgery with 100% accuracy.
(Note: The surgery was performed on a realistic model, not an actual human patient.
