Reeling It In: Flexible Needle Pick Up via Thread Manipulation for Autonomous Suturing

Suture-needle pickup is necessary for autonomous suturing, as a needle can be unexpectedly dropped or strategically released to adjust the grasping configuration. Current methods for autonomous needle pickup typically guide a robot to move straight toward the needle and grasp it, limited to conditions where the needle is observable and directly approachable. In addition, grasping the needle lying on tissue can lead to the robot pinching nearby tissue or the needle jumping around due to its slippery surface, posing potential safety issues. This work proposes an autonomous framework that uses a suture thread as an assistive tool for indirect needle pickup, avoiding unnecessary tool-tissue contact and enabling pickup even when the needle is occluded or inaccessible. The framework spans the entire workflow, including thread and tissue reconstruction, safe grasp-point selection, stable thread lifting, and bimanual thread-following until securing needle grasping. The robot policies account for visual uncertainty to maximize robustness in real-world environments. We evaluate the proposed framework on a da Vinci Research Kit under various real-world conditions. The results demonstrate robust performance even with a challenging thread configuration or a non-approachable needle, closing the gap in applying autonomous robot policies to unstructured suturing environments.

In vivo feasibility study of humanoid robots in surgery

Recent advances in actuation, control and learning have rapidly pushed humanoid robots from a distant vision towards near-term real-world deployment. Healthcare is a particularly pressing domain, in which staffing shortages and increasing care demand are widening the gap between clinical workload and available skilled labour. Although current automation has largely focused on digital and logistical tasks, much hospital work remains embodied, requiring mobility, manipulation and safe interaction in human-designed environments. Humanoid form factors offer unique potential, particularly for assisting with surgical tasks. Traditionally, robotic systems for surgery are purpose-built platforms such as Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci Surgical System, and it remains unclear how close current humanoid systems are to meeting the precision, control and safety requirements of minimally invasive surgery. Here we present a systematic evaluation of contemporary humanoid technology for laparoscopic surgical tasks. We develop a humanoid-based laparoscopic teleoperation framework using general-purpose instruments and assess its abilities through benchtop characterization, dry-laboratory user studies spanning diverse surgical experience levels and in vivo porcine studies. Across these evaluations, we quantify technical feasibility, task performance and clinical readiness relative to established surgical platforms. Together, our study provides an evidence-based assessment of current humanoid abilities and limitations for surgical applications, highlighting both their promise and key technical challenges that must be addressed before clinical deployment.