The origins of modern surgical robotics can be traced, as with many other technologies, to the military. In the mid-1980s, a team of researchers at NASA began a collaboration with robotics experts at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). The goal was to combine two emerging technologies, virtual reality and robotic telemanipulation, to deliver a virtual surgeon interface that could effectively bring the surgeon to the patient. The surgeon would have control over robotic arms equipped with enhanced dexterity to perform complex open surgical procedures.

The collaborative effort of NASA and SRI, called the Green Telepresence Surgery projec t , piqued the interest of the military and in 1992 the Pentagon began funding under the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) . The military had a vision of carrying an injured soldier into a vehicle equipped with robotic surgical equipment and allow a surgeon to perform damage control surgery remotely from a mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) unit. Testing on the prototype proved promising in animal models and by 1996, the SRI team demonstrated that damage control surgeries could be performed remotely from over a 5 km distance [1]. As combat scenarios changed from the field to cities in the 1990s, the system was never able to be fully implemented. However, it laid the groundwork for the emerging field of surgical robotics and telesurgery .

At this time, a parallel development was emerging and having a more immediate impact in general surgery. The laparoscopic cholecystectomy , first performed by Mouret in 1987 and presented at the international stage by Jacques Perissat in 1989, led to an explosion in minimally invasive surgery. However, there were drawbacks including higher costs, high learning curve, diminished visualization and exposure, and impaired dexterity.

One side project funded by ARPA sought to bring robotic technology to laparoscopy. The Automated Endoscopic System for Optimal Positioning (AESOP ) was developed by Yulun Wang at the University of California, at Santa Barbara [2]. This voice-controlled camera allowed the surgeon to perform a laparoscopic procedure without the need for an assistant or camera holder. In 1993, The AESOP became the first FDA-approved robotic device for general surgery. It would later become a part of the Zeus surgical system (Computer Motion Inc., Santa Barbara, CA) which was released in 1997 and carried a similar platform to the modern da Vinci.