Control Strategy with Remote-Center-of-Motion Constraint for Robotic Intraocular Injection

Abstract

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is becoming more popular in the elderly and even adolescent population. Intraocular injection is an important treatment method for AMD, which is usually performed manually by ophthalmologists. However, the rapidly growing number of patients reduces the quality of treatment. Using Ophthalmic Specialized devices for intraocular injection can keep the treatment quality stable, but these devices are too large, complex and inflexible. Thus, the research of robotic intraocular injection is necessary. In our work, a robotic intraocular injection system based on a general-purpose manipulator is proposed. We presented a remote-center-of-motion (RCM) constraint model applicable for intraocular injection, to keep the injection orientation perpendicular to the surface of eyeball. A constrained motion controller is designed to accomplish the intraocular injection task of the manipulator. To verify the effectiveness of our RCM constraint model and the controller, numerical simulations were performed. The results show that the proposed method can accomplish the motion task while maintaining the constraint task well, which meets the critical operational requirements for intraocular injection.