CMR Surgical Advances Physical AI to Support the Future of Robotic Surgery with NVIDIA

Cambridge-based surgical robotics company contributes majority of surgical data to world's largest open healthcare robotics dataset

Mar. 16, 2026 at 9:11pm

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CMR Surgical, a global surgical robotics company, announced its participation in NVIDIA's Physical AI healthcare robotics initiative. As part of the initiative, CMR contributed close to 500 hours of anonymized surgical data from its Versius Surgical Robotic System, representing the largest share of surgical data in the initiative. The dataset, called Open-H, is designed to train the next generation of intelligent surgical systems and enable robotic systems to better interpret complex surgical environments and tasks.

Why it matters

Advancing surgical robotics further requires new approaches to how robotic systems learn from clinical experience. By contributing real-world surgical data to collaborative initiatives like Open-H, CMR is helping build the foundations for the next generation of intelligent surgical systems that can assist surgeons, scale surgical expertise and ultimately expand access to high-quality care.

The details

CMR's Versius Surgical Robotic System is designed to support surgeons in performing minimally invasive procedures across a range of specialties. Versius features a modular, portable design that integrates into existing operating room environments and surgical workflows. Through its wider digital ecosystem, Versius captures insights that support continuous learning and surgical innovation. By contributing anonymized data to Open-H, CMR aims to support broader innovation across the healthcare robotics community.

  • On March 16, 2026, CMR Surgical announced its participation in NVIDIA's Physical AI healthcare robotics initiative.

The players

CMR Surgical

A global medical devices company dedicated to transforming surgery with Versius, a next-generation surgical robot.

NVIDIA

A technology company that unveiled the Physical AI healthcare robotics initiative at NVIDIA GTC.

Versius Surgical Robotic System

CMR Surgical's modular, portable surgical robot designed to support surgeons in performing minimally invasive procedures.

Open-H

The world's largest open dataset for healthcare robotics, designed to train the next generation of intelligent surgical systems.

Isaac GR00T-H

The first open vision-language-action model for healthcare robotics, designed to enable robotic systems to better interpret complex surgical environments and tasks.

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What they’re saying

“Surgical robotics generates a rich understanding of how procedures are performed. By contributing real‑world surgical data to collaborative initiatives like Open‑H, we are helping build the foundations for the next generation of intelligent surgical systems. Because Versius is the most software-driven robot on the market, we were well-placed to share our data with the wider ecosystem.”

— Chris Fryer, Chief Technology Officer at CMR Surgical

“The next generation of surgical robotics will be powered by data, simulation and AI working together. By responsibly contributing surgical data and training open models on NVIDIA's physical AI platform, medical technology leaders like CMR Surgical are accelerating a new generation of intelligent robotic systems that can assist surgeons, scale surgical expertise and ultimately expand access to high-quality care.”

— David Niewolny, Head of Business Development for Healthcare and Medical Technology at NVIDIA

What’s next

CMR Surgical plans to continue contributing anonymized surgical data from its Versius Surgical Robotic System to the Open-H dataset, further supporting the development of advanced AI-powered surgical systems.

The takeaway

By responsibly contributing real-world surgical data to open initiatives like Open-H, CMR Surgical is helping build the foundations for the next generation of intelligent surgical systems that can augment surgeon capabilities, enhance surgical workflows, and ultimately expand access to high-quality minimally invasive care.