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Robot that watched surgery videos performs with skill of human doctor

Breakthrough training system utilizing imitation learning opens 'new frontier' in medical robotics


A robot, trained for the first time by watching videos of seasoned surgeons, executed the same surgical procedures as skillfully as the human doctors.

The successful use of imitation learning to train surgical robots eliminates the need to program robots with each individual move required during a medical procedure and brings the field of robotic surgery closer to true autonomy, where robots could perform complex surgeries without human help.

The findings, led by Johns Hopkins University researchers, are being spotlighted this week at the Conference on Robot Learning in Munich, a top event for robotics and machine learning.

"It's really magical to have this model and all we do is feed it camera input and it can predict the robotic movements needed for surgery," said senior author Axel Krieger, an assistant professor in JHU's Department of Mechanical Engineering. "We believe this marks a significant step forward toward a new frontier in medical robotics."


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