Buying guide

da Vinci (and Ion) vs Hugo RAS in 2026

Comparing 2 humanoid robots across availability, pricing, capabilities, and verified deployments. Current as of 2026.

Key differences

On DEPLOY's record, da Vinci (and Ion) is further along: at the production stage versus Hugo RAS at the commercial stage, as of 2026.

da Vinci (and Ion) has more verified real-world deployments (13 vs 4).
da Vinci (and Ion) is at the production stage; Hugo RAS at the commercial stage.

Attribute	da Vinci (and Ion)View full model page →	Hugo RAS View full model page →
Manufacturer	Intuitive Surgical	Medtronic
Form factor	surgical	surgical
Maturity	production	commercial
Autonomy	◐ not independently verified	◐ not independently verified
Availability	internal-onlyenterprise	internal-onlyenterprise
Price	$1,800,000-$2,500,000 (analyst estimate) or $1,500,000-$2,500,000 (actual sale price)	Not announced
Capability claims	Assists surgery (teleoperated-assisted, verified)	Assists surgery (teleoperated-assisted, claimed)
Brain	—	—
Verified deployments	13	4
Privacy practices	—	—
Sources on file	29	18

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da Vinci (and Ion)

Hugo RAS

Editorial summaries

da Vinci (and Ion)

Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci is the gold-standard surgical robot and the verified-at-scale anchor of the category. Per Intuitive's SEC filings, 11,395 da Vinci systems and 1,041 Ion endoluminal systems are installed. The lineup spans da Vinci multi-port (X/Xi), the single-port SP, and the fifth-generation da Vinci 5 (FDA cleared March 2024, with force feedback), plus the Ion bronchoscopy robot (FDA 2019).

It is teleoperated, a surgeon controls every motion, with shipped analytics AI; autonomous-suturing work exists only as research demos on da Vinci hardware, not as shipped product. It is enterprise B2B equipment sold to hospitals at multi-million-dollar per-system prices; there is no consumer price.

Hugo RAS

Medtronic's Hugo RAS is a modular, multi-port teleoperated robotic-assisted-surgery system and the main commercial competitor to Intuitive's da Vinci. It is CE-marked in Europe (urology and gynecology, October 2021) and US FDA-cleared for urology only (December 2025: prostatectomy, nephrectomy, cystectomy); US general-surgery and gynecology indications are planned but not yet cleared.

It is teleoperated with no shipped intraoperative AI. Medtronic does not disclose a Hugo installed-base count, so DEPLOY records honest absence rather than an invented number. It is enterprise B2B equipment; there is no consumer price.

Common questions

How do da Vinci (and Ion) and Hugo RAS differ?

On DEPLOY's record, da Vinci (and Ion) is further along: at the production stage versus Hugo RAS at the commercial stage, as of 2026. da Vinci (and Ion) has more verified real-world deployments (13 vs 4). da Vinci (and Ion) is at the production stage; Hugo RAS at the commercial stage.

What is the difference between da Vinci (and Ion) and Hugo RAS?

da Vinci (and Ion) and Hugo RAS are both surgical robots on the DEPLOY registry. They differ in maker, maturity, price, verified deployments, and how much of their autonomy is independently verified. See the table above for the full head-to-head; each figure is sourced.

Is da Vinci (and Ion) or Hugo RAS more autonomous?

On the DEPLOY registry, neither da Vinci (and Ion) nor Hugo RAS has capabilities independently verified as fully autonomous yet; their recorded capabilities are teleoperated-assisted, demonstrated, or vendor-claimed. See the table for each capability's verification status.

Which has more verified deployments, da Vinci (and Ion) or Hugo RAS?

da Vinci (and Ion) has more verified deployments (13) on the DEPLOY registry than Hugo RAS (4). DEPLOY counts a deployment only when confirmed at a named site with a primary source.

Recent coverage

Surgeons use da Vinci surgical robot to perform common cardiac surgeryda Vinci (and Ion) · The Robot Report · 2026-08-17
Da Vinci 5 Cleared for Cardiac Proceduresda Vinci (and Ion) · isrg.intuitive.com · 2026-07-26
Medtronic to unveil Touch Surgery Aide compute platform at SRS 2026Hugo RAS · Ben Smith, Deploy Editor · 2026-07-21
Pacemaker manufacturer Medtronic warns patients cybercrooks may have swiped health dataHugo RAS · The Register · 2026-07-02

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All surgical robotsRegistry Every verified record in the category.da Vinci (and Ion)Model The full model page.Hugo RASModel The full model page.Intuitive SurgicalRecord The maker's verified record.MedtronicRecord The maker's verified record.Versius vs da Vinci (and Ion)Compare Another head-to-head.

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