Watching old episodes of ER won’t turn you into a doctor, but for a robotic surgeon, simply watching videos could be all it takes to learn how to perform surgery.
A new study from researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University has demonstrated that a surgical robot can match human capability in certain procedures by simply observing humans.
The research focused on the da Vinci Surgical System, a popular tool for minimally invasive surgeries. Traditionally, programming robots involves manually inputting each movement, but the researchers took a different approach using imitation learning.
This technique allowed the robots to acquire human-level surgical skills by watching humans perform procedures, bypassing the need for detailed manual programming.
The researchers compiled hundreds of videos captured by wrist-mounted cameras, showcasing human doctors performing three specific tasks: needle manipulation, tissue lifting, and suturing.
The approach was similar to the training methods used for AI models like ChatGPT, but instead of text, the model learned from the movement patterns of human hands and the tools they used.
This kinematic data was converted into mathematical representations, allowing the model to apply the movements to carry out the procedures. After watching the videos, the AI model was able to replicate these techniques using the da Vinci Surgical System.
This method is reminiscent of Google’s experiments with teaching AI-powered robots to navigate environments and complete tasks by observing videos.
“It’s truly incredible to see this model at work; all we do is feed it camera input, and it can predict the robotic movements required for surgery,” said Axel Krieger, senior author and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, in a statement.
“This represents a major leap forward in medical robotics. The model even learns tasks we haven’t explicitly taught it. For example, if it drops a needle, it automatically picks it up and continues. This wasn’t something I programmed it to do.”
While the concept of an AI-controlled robot handling sharp instruments during surgery might seem unnerving, the precision of these machines can sometimes surpass human capabilities.
Robotic surgery is becoming more prevalent, with studies suggesting that robots performing complex procedures independently could reduce medical errors, making surgeries safer.
This allows human doctors to conserve their energy and focus on unexpected complications or the more intricate aspects of surgery that machines aren’t yet equipped to handle.
Looking ahead, the researchers plan to use the same techniques to train an AI to perform an entire surgery. They are not alone in this pursuit; earlier this year, AI dental tech company Perceptive demonstrated an AI-guided robot successfully performing a dental procedure on a human without supervision.
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