It was 1983, when the first experimental surgical robotic operations were performed by McEwen, Auchinlec, and Day on the Arthrobot at the University of British Columbia. The decades that have passed since have seen the SRI Inteational telesurgical system, the PROBOT [1991], the ROBODOC [1992], and other academic and experimental medical robots. Finally, in 1992, Computer Motion Inc. brought the robotic Automated endoscopic system for optimal positioning (AESOP) system to use in the operating room, followed by Intuitive Surgical and its da Vinci surgical system in 2000. The last decade and a half have seen much evolution in the field. The surgical robot evolved from a single purpose robot, to a true surgical instrument with many potential operations. Over one million operations of many types have been performed with the assistance of the surgical robot. Though the field is still in its infancy, the potential impact of this field is starting to be appreciated.