The story of da Vinci robotic surgery began with the goal of developing a robotic telepresence surgical system to address the Department of Defense’s need to decrease battlefield casualties. The robotic technology that resulted would later be introduced into operating rooms as the da Vinci surgical system by Intuitive Surgical. Through continuous innovation, the robotic platform would evolve through five generations and find clinical value in multiple surgical specialties. New platforms were added including the Single Port robotic platform which provides alternate ways to access surgical sites and the Ion Endoluminal system, a shape-sensing robotic-assisted bronchoscopic biopsy device. These computer-driven robotic systems provide data analytics, machine learning and possibly artificial intelligence. They also provide a platform on which to build the technologies of the future, which may include 3-D and molecule enhanced imagery, and autonomous surgery.