Laser assisted robotic surgery in cornea transplantation

Robotic surgery is a reality in several surgical fields, such as in gastrointestinal surgery. In ophthalmic surgery the required high spatial precision is limiting the application of robotic system, and even if several attempts have been designed in the last 10 years, only some application in retinal surgery were tested in animal models. The combination of photonics and robotics can really open new frontiers in minimally invasive surgery, improving the precision, reducing tremor, amplifying scale of motion, and automating the procedure. In this work we present the preliminary results in developing a vision guided robotic platform for laser-assisted anterior eye surgery. The robotic consolle is composed by a robotic arm equipped with an "end effector" designed to deliver laser light to the anterior corneal surface. The main intended application is for laser welding of corneal tissue in laser assisted penetrating keratoplasty and endothelial keratoplasty. The consolle is equipped with an integrated vision system. The experiment originates from a clear medical demand in order to improve the efficacy of at least 20 different surgical procedures: when the prototype will be optimized other surgical areas will be included in its application, such as neurosurgery, urology and spinal surgery. This research activity has been performed in the framework of the Experiment "LA-ROSES", granted by FP7 ECORD++ - The European Coordination Hub for Open Robotics Development (2015-2016).