Autonomous surgical robots are becoming increasingly capable thanks to major advances in imaging, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Colon cancer surgery, which requires extreme precision, is one of the many procedures that could benefit from robotic help. Traditional minimally invasive surgery depends heavily on a surgeon’s skill, and complications remain common. Autonomous robots aim to reduce these risks by performing repetitive, delicate tasks like suturing with greater accuracy than human hands.
A key breakthrough came from the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) developed at Johns Hopkins University. In 2016, STAR performed the first autonomous soft-tissue surgery on a live animal, creating more consistent and stronger sutures than human surgeons. Later versions improved imaging, added machine-learning–based tissue tracking, and adapted the system for laparoscopic use. By 2020, STAR could perform nearly six stitches autonomously before needing surgeon correction, far better than manual laparoscopic methods.
Future surgical robots will likely combine advanced computer vision, natural language understanding, and AI-driven motion planning so surgeons can guide them with simple verbal commands. As robots begin gathering data from real surgeries, they can continue learning and improving. While challenges remain especially around safety, data privacy, and legal responsibility autonomous robots are on track to become an important part of future operating rooms.
Read more-https://spectrum.ieee.org/star-autonomous-surgical-robot