da Vinci (and Ion) vs CORI in 2026

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.

CORI

Smith+Nephew's CORI Surgical System is a compact, surgeon-controlled handheld robotics platform for orthopedic knee surgery and the handheld, imageless archetype of the orthopedic sub-cohort. It is imageless (no pre-operative CT or MRI): the surgeon paints the joint surface intra-operatively to build a 3D bone model, then uses a handheld robotic bur whose cutting speed and exposure are robotically controlled to the surgical plan, with optical navigation.

Its small footprint positions it for ambulatory surgery centers and outpatient ORs. It is AI-augmented but surgeon-controlled, not autonomous. A critical verified-vs-claimed distinction aggregators routinely blur: CORI's robotic burring is cleared for the knee only (total, partial/unicompartmental, and revision knee); its hip capability is navigation-only (RI.HIP NAVIGATION, cleared January 2022), not robotic burring.

Made by Smith+Nephew (LSE: SN; NYSE: SNN). As enterprise B2B surgical equipment, there is no consumer price.