Advancements and challenges in the development of master–slave microsurgical robots: a comprehensive review *

Conventional microsurgery faces the major challenges of ‘tremor, risk, and fatigue’ due to its demanding precision requirements, the fragility of tissues, restricted operating space, and the physiological limits of the human body. Microsurgical robots, equipped with key technologies such as tremor suppression, motion scaling, multimodal sensing fusion, and teleoperation, can significantly enhance surgical precision and stability while reducing surgeon fatigue and the risk of postoperative complications. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the current research progress and technical achievements of master–slave microsurgical robots with the greatest development potential, and offers an in-depth analysis of the challenges and future directions of their key technologies. Finally, it outlines the trend that microsurgical robots are evolving toward greater versatility, broader perceptual and interactive capabilities, higher autonomy, and deeper system specialization. This paper aims to provide readers with a more precise understanding of the current state and future trajectory of microsurgical robot research, and to promote its accelerated clinical adoption through broader and more in-depth investigation.