Waltham, Massachusetts-based Vicarious said it completed the animal lab in December 2025. It says this marks “a meaningful step forward” as it develops its surgical robotic system. The company said the lab reinforces its progress toward a system design freeze earmarked for the end of 2026.
Vicarious’ robot — designed to increase the efficiency of surgical procedures — has hit a number of hurdles on its development timeline. The company previously set its sights on first-in-human trials midway through 2025. It pushed the robot’s timeline back in November 2023, then in March 2024 maintained its timeline to have its “V1.0” system ready for an FDA submission by early to mid-fiscal 2026.
In late 2024, the company said it planned for a year-end cadaver lab for V1.0, followed by efforts toward verification, validation, and optimization of the system ahead of formal clinical testing. In May 2025, Vicarious announced a new hospital collaboration, moving closer to bringing its surgical robot technology to patients. Then, in August, the company said Vicarious would hold off on clinical trial initiation to further develop its robot. At that point, the company set its sights on the end of 2026 for that design freeze. It now appears to be moving closer to that target.
More on the Vicarious Surgical porcine lab
During the lab, the company said surgeons independently completed key elements of ventral hernia repair using the company’s system as part of a limited-scope feasibility assessment. At the same time, the company conducted targeted technical evaluations to assess system performance.
Altogether, Vicarious said its activities provided a “practical assessment of the system in a realistic surgical environment.” This also generated data central to ongoing design decisions.
The December lab included three independent development protocols. It had a primary feasibility assessment focused on completing an intraperitoneal onlay mesh (IPOM) ventral hernia repair, a separate evaluation of monopolar scissors for energy delivery and cauterization, and a series of visualization and imaging assessments.
Vicarious said the in-vivo setting enabled the assessment of core system capabilities. That includes instrument articulation, visualization, system integration, and procedural workflow within a realistic surgical environment. It plans to use data and surgeon feedback to refine design, plan verification and optimize the system.
The lab marked the first in-vivo animal cases conducted in “several years,” Vicarious said. Procedures were also the first performed with an integrated system architecture, rather than early-stage prototypes.
“Participating in this in-vivo lab provided valuable insight into how the system performs in a realistic surgical setting,” said Dr. Barry Green, chief medical officer of Vicarious Surgical. “While the system is still in development, we completed critical procedural elements and independently evaluated key instruments and visualization capabilities. The observations and data from this work are directly informing ongoing design refinement and system optimization.”
