What does that mean?

One of the beauties AND frustrations of a living language is that there are always new words and terms to be learned. One of the underwriters on the public radio station I listen to is a hospital that includes the words "robotic surgery for prostate cancer" in its underwriting message. The picture that pops into my mind is my father lying on the operating table, but instead of Dr Desai standing over him with a scalpel, it is R2D2 and CPO3. I did finally do a Google search to learn what robotic surgery is.