Steady-Hand Manipulator for Retinal Surgery

This paper describes the ongoing development of a robotic assistant for microsurgery and other precise manipulation tasks. It reports a new and optimized version of a steady-hand manipulator for retinal surgery. The surgeon and the robot share control of a tool attached to the robot through a force sensor. The robot’s controller senses forces exerted by the operator on the tool and uses this information in various control modes to provide smooth, tremorfree precise positional control and force scaling. The result is a system with a higher efficacy, flexibility and ergonomics while meeting the accuracy and safety requirements of microsurgery.