Chinese eye surgery robot outperforms humans in precision

BEIJING: A group of Chinese researchers has invented an autonomous robotic system capable of performing delicate eye injections within the restricted space of the human eye. This innovation potentially improves the accuracy and safety of surgeries used to treat debilitating retinal diseases.

Developed by the Institute of Automation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the surgical robot demonstrated 100 percent success in delicate animal tests, performing both subretinal and intravascular injections. The journal Science Robotics recently detailed this achievement.

Surgery on the eye, especially the retina, is notoriously difficult because of the organ’s small, fragile tissues. The system overcomes this challenge by employing a range of algorithms for 3D spatial perception, highly precise cross-scale positioning, and trajectory control. These methods expertly guide its robotic arm.

In experiments involving eyeball phantoms, ex vivo porcine eyes, and in vivo animal eyeballs, the autonomous robot significantly reduced average positioning errors. The study notes that the robot reduced errors by nearly 80 percent compared to manual surgery. Additionally, positioning errors were reduced by about 55 percent compared to surgeon-controlled robotic surgery.

These results demonstrate the clinical feasibility of an autonomous intraocular microsurgical robot, highlighting its capability to enhance injection precision, safety, and consistency.

According to the researchers, such an autonomous system could improve surgical consistency and safety, shorten training periods for surgeons, and potentially enable complicated eye operations in remote areas or harsh environments. This could help in places where specialist surgeons are inaccessible.