How surgical robotics startups are wielding AI for personalization and autonomy
In a recent post on X, Elon Musk made a bold, controversial claim: “Robots will surpass good human surgeons within a few years and the best human surgeons within ~5 years.”
Regardless of the accuracy of Musk’s assessment, there’s no question that surgical robotics has been getting better and better each year.
If you have a certain surgery in the near future—for instance, a knee replacement or kidney stone removal—odds are good that your surgery will be completed or assisted by a robot. And part of how these machines have been able to perform so well in surgery is that many of them are now enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI).
The trend: More and more surgical robotics companies are unveiling AI-driven surgical products. Two recent announcements include:
- Monogram Technologies’ mBôs TKA System, which recently received FDA clearance and has also gotten approval to begin a clinical trial in India.
- Korea’s Roen Surgical’s unveiling of Zamenix, which it calls the “world’s first” AI-powered kidney stone surgery robot.
And don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten how, last fall, Johns Hopkins researchers had the famous da Vinci Surgical System cram videos of human surgeons performing three fundamental surgical tasks. And how the robot went on to perform them just as skillfully as a human surgeon.
From one-size-fits-all to surgical personalization: Monogram’s orthopedic robot highlights one of the key ways AI can improve on what a surgical robot can do.
- CEO Benjamin Sexson described how the mBôs robot moves surgical robotics beyond the industry standard of “mechanical alignment,” in which robots help surgeons repeat the same type of joint replacement over and over.
- Instead, Monogram’s technology allows the robotics system to develop personalized alignment approaches before and during surgery based on patient data, such as imaging. This increased personalization leads to greater patient satisfaction.
- While other surgical robotics leaders, like Stryker, have image-based personalization approaches as well, Monogram hopes to compete by developing its technology to apply to other orthopedic surgeries, moving past the need for siloed, application-specific robots.
Increasing robotic autonomy: Zamenix’s U.S. debut at the American Urological Association (AUA) conference in April showcased how AI-driven autonomy can increase the ease of use for surgical robots.
- Despite limited exposure to Zamenix-assisted kidney stone procedures, clinicians involved in the product’s animal trials had comparable success and safety outcomes to traditional kidney stone surgery.
- The robot removes kidney stones without the need for incisions, relying instead on a flexible endoscope, guided by the system’s AI.
Looking forward: As we continue to watch the development of these application-specific surgical robots, we’re also interested to see how surgical robotics continues to be shaped by LLMs.
- This “learning-based” approach is likely to be key to designing more widely useful surgical robots. However, as with other LLM applications, this approach may yield more unpredictable results than traditional model-based approaches to surgical robotics AI.