Peer-Reviewed Publication
Sci Adv2026;12(27):eaec4197.July 3, 2026Journal Article
Toward autonomous robotic-assisted and microrobotic surgery.
Sungyun Yang1, Byung Ha Kang1, Hyeongho Min1, Juan P Wachs2, Farshid Alambeigi3, Jaydev P Desai4, Pierre E Dupont5, Kurt Yaeger6, Katherine Anderson7, Alan Kuntz8, Ron Alterovitz9, Robert J Webster10, Nobuhiko Hata11, Janani S Reisenauer12, McKenna Clinch13, Alex Abramson4,13,14, Jie Ying Wu8, Tommaso Ranzani15, Peter C Kim16,17, Alex S Huang18, Cheng Sun19, Hao F Zhang20, Cameron N Riviere21, Eric R Henderson22, Michael Yip23, Xiaoguang Dong10,24,25, Daniel A Wollin26, David H Gracias27,28,29,30, Lamar O Mair31, Michael Karpelson32, Robert J Wood32, Itai Cohen33,34, Michael S Strano1
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
2Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
3Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and Texas Robotics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
4Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
5Department of Cardiac Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
6Department of Neurological Surgery, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
71955 Capital & K2A2 Consulting LLC (Biomedical Engineering), Signal Mountain, TN 37377, USA.
8Department of Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37212, USA.
9Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
10Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240, USA.
11National Center for Image Guided Therapy, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
12Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
13School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
14Division of Digestive Diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30307, USA.
15Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
16Department of Surgery, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA.
17Activ Surgical Inc., Boston, MA 02210, USA.
18Hamilton Glaucoma Center, Viterbi Family Department of Ophthalmology and the Shiley Eye Institute, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
19Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
20Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
21Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
22Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA.
23Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
24Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37212, USA.
25Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37212, USA.
26Department of Urology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
27Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218 USA.
28Department of Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
29Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
30Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
31Weinberg Medical Physics Inc., North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA.
32Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
33Laboratory of Atomic and Solid-State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.
34Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.
Abstract
Autonomous 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 pr…
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