With funding from the National Science Foundation and two private donors, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, will establish a research center intended to help develop medical robots that can perform low-level and repetitive surgical tasks, freeing doctors to concentrate on the most challenging and complex aspects of the operations they perform.

“Our goal is to help surgeons focus on the critical aspects of surgery, rather than having to perform each tedious and repetitive subtask,” said Ken Goldberg, a professor of engineering at the university and a founder of the new Center for Automation and Learning for Medical Robotics.

The center’s other founders are Pieter Abbeel, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and Sachin Patil, a postdoctoral researcher.

Some surgical tasks involving bone can be performed robots on their own, including certain aspects of hip and knee replacement. But fully automated robotic surgery on soft tissues is beyond current technology.