Robotics in action.
MicroPort MedBot announced that worldwide commercial orders for the Toumai Surgical Robot have exceeded 100 units. Toumai Surgical Robot 80 units are already installed. This achievement establishes Toumai as the top Chinese-developed endoscopic surgical robot, marking a record in Chinese Medical Robotics expertise. April 2025, Toumai becomes the world’s first surgical robot to receive regulatory approvals for some surgeries.
MedBot deals with research in robot ontology, control algorithms, engineering, “image-based navigation, and precision imaging.” MedBot robotic-assisted surgical system has exceeded 130 orders.
Toumai is a robotic system that assists surgeons in performing various procedures, including prostatectomies, nephrectomies, and hysterectomies. This is done with tiny incisions with endoscopic instruments and (virtually controlled) robotic arms. The term “robotic system” refers to the complete setup, not just a part of it.
Image from:https://www.medbotsurgical.com/en/news/270.html
These days AI means gen AI to people. But once robotics was a part of AI. Here, we discuss how robotic surgeries are helping people worldwide. Telesurgery is a form of remote surgery where a surgeon controls robotic instruments from a distant location to operate on a patient.
Robotic surgery offers easier access to high-quality medical procedures in remote places. This requires doctors who are adept in technological advancements, global collaboration, and the latest innovations. Sometimes, patients are so ill that they cannot be sent to a specialist elsewhere. This leads to remote, robotic treatments, where patients can choose remote surgery options if they prefer a technical doctor over a non-technical one.
Why do we need remote surgeries?
When we can’t reach a doctor in time, remote surgeries are often a good alternative.
But are we there? Are we there with advancements in AI or Robotic surgeries?
In places like the International Space Station, such robots can be very helpful. Let’s build systems with this in mind. Just like Sunita Williams was stuck in the Space Station for a long time despite her poor health, similar technology could assist in such situations. On Earth, progress is reaching every city, so we can have good healthcare everywhere. Robotics adds precision, and who knows—they might even reduce the workload for top surgeons.
Some key events in the making of Toumai
October 2025, MicroPort MedBot robotic telesurgery was showcased, with doctors from Kuwait successfully performing three robotic telesurgeries using the Toumai Surgical Robot. They became the first female gynecologic oncology specialists worldwide to lead inter-hospital robotic telesurgeries.
October, 2025. In a collaboration, Hospital Nove de Julho (São Paulo) and Hospital Mae de Deus (Porto Alegre) performed remote robotic surgery.
In August 2025, three surgeons in China used the same Toumai Endoscopic Surgical Robot to perform telesurgeries for three patients in Kashgar, China, around 5,000 kilometers away from the surgeon.
July 2025, Toumai first performed an intercontinental liver cancer resection, left hepatic lobectomy on a patient located more than 10,000 kilometres away in Hangzhou, China. Around 2500 surgeons watched the procedure.
July 2025, Professor Rong successfully performed the world’s first low Earth orbit satellite-based remote robotic surgeries using the Toumai Mobile Surgical Platform.
In April, Europe’s first robot-assisted telesurgery was conducted by a Belgian surgeon via a hospital-grade network. With the Toumai endoscopic robotic system, a 34-year-old woman with recurrent cervical glandular intraepithelial neoplasia underwent a total hysterectomy.
November 2024 with the Chinese-made Toumai Robot, the longest long-distance surgery was a prostate cancer surgery performed from Shanghai, China, on a patient in Casablanca, Morocco, around 12,000 kilometers away.
November 2024 – In Rome, Italy, Toumai Surgical Robot successfully performed a combined adrenal tumor and gallbladder removal surgery. The doctor performed this kind of operation for the first time, and it was a seamless procedure, as reported by the company. The operation was termed a master-slave operation and lasted 100 minutes with minimal blood loss, and no major complications were reported.
Between October 2023 and January 2024, Peking University First Hospital conducted 20 urologic procedures with the Toumai MT-1000 system.
The history of robotics dates back to November 1, 2019, when a robot from MicroPort Medbot, a subsidiary of Shanghai MicroPort Medical completed a robot-assisted prostatectomy at Oriental Hospital of Shanghai.
The price of a Toumai laparoscopic surgical robot is not publicly available; however, it is estimated to be around $1.5 million on Internet, excluding importation, maintenance, and consumables.
–Now serving over 20,000 hospitals.
–100+ countries.
–Gemelli Hospital in Italy has completed over 50 cases
— In Belgium, completed 100 cases.
–In Africa with four installations 500 surgeries have been performed.
–In India, Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in India around 50 urology procedures completed.
–Regional training hub in Turkey for places around it.
More advancements in this area can be achieved when telesurgery and robotics operations are taught in medical colleges, with hands-on experience on non-human beings as part of intelligent training for upcoming budding doctors. This can increase the number of surgical procedures that can be addressed globally, not just in the region.
Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science & Mathematics 