For the first time, a robot has performed eye surgery on humans. It’s success hints that in the near future robots will be performing operations that are too delicate for a human to do manually.

Each of the six participants in the study needed a membrane removed from their retina to improve vision. This procedure involves cutting out a collection of cells that have clumped together, distorting what the person can see.

Twelve people in total had the surgery, with half of them conducted using a robot. …