Samsung Medical Center, the lead institution for Korea's ARPA-H project, has built two humanoid surgical-assistant robots with Rainbow Robotics and consortium partners, and will demonstrate them on September 16, 2026 at the Samsung Life Insurance Ilwon Station Building. The consortium, named ORchestra, says it is the world's first showcase of two such robots working alongside human staff as a single surgical team.
The robots hand and retrieve instruments, operate endoscopes, retract tissue and respond to voice commands. In simulated environments they have also gripped instruments, incised and sutured tissue, and stopped and recovered safely. Robot No. 1 takes the scrub-nurse role; Robot No. 2 covers assistant-physician and nursing duties at the same time. Development has run roughly a year.
Key Facts
- Reported September 9, 2026; public demonstration scheduled for September 16, 2026
- ORchestra consortium: Samsung Medical Center (lead), Rainbow Robotics, Aidin Robotics, Hahaeho, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences and Technology, Seoul National University, the National Cancer Center, Jeonbuk National University Hospital
- Two robots: No. 1 as operating-room nurse; No. 2 as assistant physician and nurse
- Not autonomous — surgeon inputs are converted into the robots' coordinate system and mirrored; commercialisation is pending trials and device approval
Why humanoid, and not another arm
The installed base of surgical robotics is console-and-cart: a fixed tower, patient-side arms, a surgeon seated at a viewer. That architecture works because the theatre was rebuilt around it. What it does not do is the rest of the room's work — passing a clamp, holding a scope steady, pulling tissue back, adjusting when the surgeon says so.
Building that as a humanoid is an argument that the operating theatre is the wrong thing to redesign. The room is sterile-field-constrained, staffed by people who move around each other in habitual patterns, and regulated down to the layout. A robot shaped like the staff it substitutes for can slot in without recertifying the space. That is the real bet here, and it is a different bet from the one the incumbent deal flow has been making.
What is demonstrated and what is claimed
Demonstrated: instrument handling, endoscope operation, retraction, voice response, and safe stop-and-recover, in simulation and on a demo date. Claimed: that two humanoids working with humans as one team is a world first. That claim is about a configuration, not a capability, and it is not independently verifiable in the way a clinical endpoint is.
Not claimed, and worth stating plainly because it will be misread: autonomy. Professor Jung Yong-ki was explicit that the system is not at the stage where the robot judges a patient's condition on its own and operates automatically. The robots mirror movement. Everything between the surgeon's intent and the instrument is teleoperation with coordinate transformation, which is a well-understood problem, and the hard clinical questions — what happens when the model is wrong, who is liable — do not arise yet because the model is not deciding anything.
The gap to a product is long and enumerated: further performance testing, simulated and preclinical trials, usability evaluation, a GMP quality system, clinical trials and medical device approval. Rainbow Robotics, majority-held by Samsung Electronics, is the hardware partner, which puts this alongside the group's CEO-led robotics division rather than off to one side of it. A September demonstration is a milestone in a research programme, not an entry into surgery.
Frequently Asked
What exactly is being demonstrated on September 16?
Two humanoid robots built by the ORchestra consortium, working alongside human operating-room staff. Robot No. 1 takes the scrub-nurse role; Robot No. 2 covers assistant-physician and nursing duties. The consortium describes it as the world's first showcase of two such robots working with humans as one surgical team.
Are the robots autonomous?
No. Professor Jung Yong-ki said it is not yet at the stage where the robot judges a patient's condition on its own and operates automatically. The robots convert surgeon inputs into their own coordinate system and mirror them; the clinical decisions remain human.
Who is in the consortium and when could this be used on patients?
Samsung Medical Center leads, with Rainbow Robotics, Aidin Robotics, Hahaeho, the Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences and Technology, Seoul National University, the National Cancer Center and Jeonbuk National University Hospital. Commercialisation still requires performance testing, simulated and preclinical trials, usability evaluation, GMP quality systems, clinical trials and medical device approval.