When even the most highly trained surgeons perform procedures on the retina—one of the smallest, most delicate parts of the human body—the stakes are high. Surgeons must account for patients’ breathing, snoring, and eye movements, along with their own involuntary hand tremors, while they work on a layer of cells less than a millimeter thick.
That’s why researchers at the University of Utah’s John A. Moran Eye Center and the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering have collaborated to create a new robotic surgery device that aims to give surgeons “superhuman” hands.
The robot is extremely precise, executing movements as small as one micrometer, or smaller than a single human cell. The robot is also small enough to be mounted directly to the patient’s head using a helmet. Once in place subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) movements of the patient’s head are compensated, keeping the eye quite still from the perspective of the robot. The robot also scales down the surgeon’s movements, measured using a handheld robotic device known as a haptic interface, to the much-smaller surgical site within the eye, compensating for hand tremors along the way.