On the use of general-purpose serial-link manipulators in eye surgery

Vitreo-retinal surgery is known to be very challenging because of the minuscule structures of the retina, which are smaller than the hand tremor amplitude of ~100 μm. In this work, the use of a serial-link general-purpose manipulator in eye surgery to increase the accuracy was assessed. The proposed system showed a 3-sigma accuracy of 22 ± 36 μm when tracing a 1 mm square with an ophthalmic micropipette. The 3-sigma remote center of motion error was 0.14 ± 0.23 mm when tracing a 7 mm square.