Head-mounted robot aids eye surgery

Procedures to treat eye conditions such as retinal disease often involve surgeons working on a layer of cells less than a millimetre thick. On top of this, surgeons must account for patients’ breathing, snoring, and eye movements, along with their own involuntary hand tremors.

Acknowledging these specific challenges, researchers at the University of Utah collaborated to create a new robotic surgery device that aims to give surgeons ‘superhuman’ hands. Mounted directly to the patient’s head using a helmet, the robot is extremely precise, executing movements as small as one micrometre. It uses a haptic interface to scale down the surgeon’s movements for the tiny operational site within the eye, while also compensating for hand tremors.

“Treatments for vision disorders are rapidly advancing,” said Jake Abbot, a professor in the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “We need to give surgeons better ability to keep up with them.”