Toward autonomous robotic-assisted and microrobotic surgery
Sungyun Yang, Byung Ha Kang, Hyeongho Min, Juan P. Wachs, Farshid Alambeigi, Jaydev P. Desai, Pierre E. Dupont, Kurt Yaeger, Katherine Anderson, Alan Kuntz, Ron Alterovitz, Robert J. Webster, Nobuhiko Hata, Janani S. Reisenauer, McKenna Clinch, Alex Abramson, Jie Ying Wu, Tommaso Ranzani, Peter C. Kim, Alex S. Huang, Cheng Sun, Hao F. Zhang, Cameron N. Riviere, Eric R. Henderson, Michael Yip, Xiaoguang Dong, Daniel A. Wollin, David H. Gracias, Lamar O. Mair, Michael Karpelson, Robert J. Wood, Itai Cohen, Michael S. StranoAutonomous robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) has emerged as a promising objective in biomedical technology, further enhanced by miniaturization toward microrobotic-assisted surgery (μ-RAS). This reduction in scale promises minimally invasive, partially or fully automated surgical procedures, with the potential to reduce patient recovery times, lower medical costs, and enable previously unavailable procedural options. This perspective highlights the specific advances in RAS that potentially map to the microscale (μ-RAS), organized across five surgical domains: endovascular, endoluminal, laparoscopic, ophthalmic, and orthopedic. We examine both clinical demands and technological advances in surgical robotics and identify the key innovations required for progress across these surgical fields. Our contribution is distinct in combining the perspectives of both surgical experts and bioengineering innovators, outlining a roadmap for the advancement and eventual integration of autonomous RAS and μ-RAS into mainstream surgical practice.