Robot Transformer

It's called Surgical Robot Transformer – Hierarcy (srt-h), and it's not one of the Transformers featured in the American science fiction series, but something very real.

A research team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA) has completed the creation of a robot capable of performing surgery completely autonomously, receiving only voice commands from a surgeon who can adjust its actions in real time. It's not a simple mechanical arm, but a machine that learns, understands, and acts.

A few years ago, the same team had developed a robot that performed laparoscopic surgery on a pig. In that initial phase, the robot operated in a highly controlled environment and followed a rigid, predetermined surgical plan. One of the research leaders described it this way: The major evolution compared to the previous system: "In the previous system, it was like teaching a robot to drive along a carefully traced path, but for the new system, it was like teaching a robot to travel any road, in any conditions, responding intelligently to anything it encounters."

Thanks to the machine learning characteristic of Artificial Intelligence, this surgical robot is interactive, therefore able to respond to voice commands and corrections, learning in turn.

How was its ability tested? The robot was made to perform gallbladder removal operations from animal model carcasses, a highly complex procedure that can be summarized in at least 17 tasks lasting a few minutes. Added to this is the ability The robot was able to adapt to anatomical characteristics in real time, making decisions and correcting any errors: srt-h was able to recognize the uniqueness of the "patient," react to unexpected stimuli, listen to a surgeon's instructions and adjust in real time, process any changes in the operating environment and then resume work where it left off.

This progress marks the evolution from robots capable of performing specific surgical tasks to robots that actually follow surgical procedures, capable of operating in the complex and often chaotic reality of patient care. Like medical residents, these robots also memorize information and improve their work, but with infinite memory and zero stress! So can we do without "human" doctors? The importance of human care – The one that doesn't just look at the malfunctioning anatomical part, that goes beyond the patient and sees the person and their environment, the one that passes from heart to heart—it is irreplaceable. First of all, we find the conscience, of those who design and those who use the technology.

NP August/September '25
Valentina Turinetto