Experimental validation of instrument insertion precision in robot-assisted eye-surgery

摘要

In vitreoretinal surgery micro-surgeons operate on fragile and small structures ranging from 0.15 to 400 micron on the back side of the eye. Despite observing the anatomy through a stereo-microscope, the overall depth perception is limited. A major challenge consists in reaching high motion precision in the insertion direction and under limited depth perception. In fact, a targeted precision of a few microns is nearly impossible to achieve by hand. Prior art includes robotic assistants that are based on co-manipulated, handheld or teleoperated robots, where respectively motions or forces are filtered out or scaled. Even if this leads to an increase in precision of the said gesture, the precision that can be reached is bounded by the hardware (surgical robot) that is being used. As far as the authors are aware of, no detailed study has been presented before describing the precision that can actually be reached in the insertion direction. This abstract analyses the reachable precision in the insertion direction of a co-manipulated surgical robot. To demonstrate the insertion quality, experiments were conducted displaying fine computer-controlled insertion motion, allowing cannulation of veins from ex-vivo pig eyes.