Researchers collaborate on eye surgery robot at University of Utah

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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. The device is precise, executing movements as small as 1 micrometer, and is mounted directly to the patient’s head using a helmet. This allows the movements of the patient’s head to be compensated for, keeping the eye 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, compensating for natural hand tremors.¹

The researchers successfully tested the robot using enucleated pig eyes. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was led by Jake Abbott, PhD, MS, a professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Moran Eye Center retinal specialist Paul S. Bernstein, MD, PhD.¹

The robotic device is not yet approved to operate on human subjects. Therefore, testing required a human volunteer fitted with special goggles that allowed an animal eye to be mounted just in front of their natural eye. This allowed the researchers to test the robot’s ability to compensate for head motion and correct for hand tremors, all while operating on animal tissue, at no risk to the volunteer. In the study, the surgeons achieved higher success rates while using the surgical robot device to perform subretinal injections while also avoiding ophthalmic complications.¹

These results were published under the title, “Head-mounted Robots are an Enabling Technology for Subretinal Injections,” online Feb. 19 in the journal Science Robotics.¹

Reference:

1. EARLY STUDY SHOWS PROMISE FOR EYE-SURGERY ROBOT INVENTED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH. University of Utah. February 19, 2025. Accessed February 25, 2025. https://www.price.utah.edu/2025/02/19/early-study-shows-promise-for-eye-surgery-robot-invented-at-the-university-of-utah