CUHK researchers have unveiled the world’s first AI-powered surgical robot that works like a true “third hand” in the operating room. Using a cutting-edge embodied intelligence platform, the robot doesn’t just follow instructions. It understands its surroundings, adapts in real time, and performs multiple surgical tasks without extra sensors. This breakthrough, proven in live animal trials, is transforming science fiction into surgical reality, where AI unites with human expertise for safer, faster surgeries worldwide.

The robotic platform of Professor Kwok Ka-wai, Professor at CUHK’s Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, provides new level of agility in non-invasive cancer surgery. He collaborated with Professor Jason Chan from the Faculty of Medicine to further develop the robotic system’s capacities to help with gastrointestinal surgeries.

Robotic arms take digestive cancer operations to new heights in Professor Philip Chiu's innovation. The robotic arms, developed by his team jointly with CUHK’s Faculty of Engineering, mimic the dexterity of a surgeon’s hands – one arm holds tissue aside with its micro-grippers while the other wields micro-blades to excise with accuracy.

CUHK’s Multi-Scale Medical Robotics Center (MRC) is a trailblazer in bringing the worlds of medicine and engineering together. In collaboration with other world-leading institutes – plus visionary commercial partners – the MRC is further advancing minimally invasive, high precision surgical robotic technologies. It is also incubating affordable medical robots as pressure mounts for better patient care in hospitals in Hong Kong, the mainland and world.