MedicalSingle-incision surgery robot

Vicarious Surgical Robotic System

Name: Vicarious Surgical Robotic System
Brand: Vicarious Surgical

Vicarious Surgical was building a robot for belly surgery that goes in through one small cut, with a camera and two arms that move inside the patient. It was never cleared by the FDA, and the company shut down in July 2026. Vicarious Surgical website, viewed Oct 2026

EndedShareholders voted on 21 July 2026 to shut the company down and liquidate it. The stage below shows how far it got.

Stage 1 of 5

Demo only

Which rule placed it

Evidence: No customer evidence yet
Human help: None reported
Last milestone: 21 July 2026

01Can I get it?

Not yet

Where it works today: Nowhere: never sold, and the company was shut down and its assets put up for liquidation in July 2026. MassDevice, 21 July 2026
Published price: No published price in our sources.
Human help: Designed to be steered by a surgeon at a console; it never reached patients.

02Track record

What has actually happened

Every milestone is dated and links to the page it comes from. Lines marked company-reported rest on the maker's own word.

21 July 2026
Setback
Shareholders voted to shut Vicarious down and liquidate it at once, and the remaining staff lost their jobs. The company had raised about $300 million in total.
MassDevice, 21 July 2026
15 July 2026
Setback
Vicarious's board asked shareholders to close and sell off the company. It said it could not raise more money or find a buyer.
MassDevice, 15 July 2026 (SEC filing)
3 March 2026
Setback
The New York Stock Exchange began removing Vicarious's stock because the company's market value had fallen below the minimum.
MassDevice, 4 Mar 2026
Dec 2025
Demo
Vicarious finished a test operation on pigs, its first animal cases in several years, and set a final design for the end of 2026.
MassDevice, 12 Jan 2026Company-reported
Aug 2025
Setback
Vicarious had aimed for first human trials by mid-2025, but in August 2025 it said it would hold off to keep developing the robot.
MassDevice, 12 Jan 2026Company-reported
15 April 2021
Funding
Vicarious agreed to go public through a $1.1 billion merger with a shell company (a SPAC). Backers included Bill Gates and Khosla Ventures.
MassDevice, 15 Apr 2021Company-reported
2019
Update
The FDA gave Vicarious's robot breakthrough device designation, a program meant to speed up review. This is not a clearance.
MassDevice, 15 Apr 2021Company-reported

03Promised vs delivered

What the maker said, and when

Dated targets the maker set in public, against what has happened since.

Said
FDA De Novo submission in early-to-mid fiscal 2026
Vicarious planned to send its robot to the FDA for De Novo review in early to mid fiscal 2026. MassDevice, 20 Mar 2026
Missed
The company shut down in July 2026 without an FDA submission being reported.

04Safety and incidents

What has gone wrong

No crashes, recalls or regulator reports in our sources. That is not proof none happened; we add them when a regulator or trusted outlet reports one.

On video

What it looks like, at stage 1

Videos from the maker show the robot at its best. The stage comes from the dated record above, not from what a video shows.

Maker's video · 12 Feb 2026Phase 2 | Our Engineering Journey

Maker's video · 29 Jan 2026Phase 1 | Our Engineering Journey

Maker's video · 13 Jan 2026The Road to Today: Our Engineering Journey in Four Stages

Maker's video · 26 Nov 2025The Founders’ Vision: Why Vicarious Surgical Exists

Maker's video · 18 Nov 2025Inside the Evolution of the Vicarious Surgical System

Maker's video · 13 Nov 2025Opening the Curtain on How We Build: A Brief Message from our CEO

Every robot video

How we placed it

The rule, not an opinion

Stages are worked out by published rules from the dated milestones above. We never rate robots, and no maker can pay to change a stage.

5
Regulator-cleared or mass market
A regulator has cleared it where approval applies: FDA clearance or approval for a medical robot, a permit to run with no one aboard for a self-driving vehicle, or an FAA approval for routine drone flights. Or: Widely sold: sales in the hundreds of thousands, or a product category you can buy in ordinary shops.
4
Paying customers
Delivered to customers who pay for it, beyond a trial, or a paid service the public can use.
3
Pilot
Working with a named customer in a real setting, as a trial.
2
Pre-orders
Orders, reservations or deposits taken, with nothing delivered yet.
1
Demo onlyThis robot
Shown in videos, staged events or a factory, with no units working for customers.
No pre-order, pilot, paying customer or clearance is on record yet.

What we couldn't confirm. Shut down July 2026. The date Vicarious first set its De Novo submission target is not stated in the source found, so 'made' is left empty.

Sources

Cite this page

Robotics Verdict. “Vicarious Surgical Robotic System (Vicarious Surgical): how far has it got?” roboticsverdict.com/robots/vicarious-surgical. Checked 19 October 2026.