A Parallel Robot With Remote Centre-of-Motion for Eye Surgery: Design, Kinematics, Prototype, and Experiments

Abstract

Background: Millions of patients suffering from eye disease cannot receive proper treatment due to the lack of qualified surgeons. Medical robots have the potential to solve this problem and have attracted significant attention in the research community. Method: This paper proposes a novel parallel robot with a remote centre of motion for minimally invasive eye surgery. Kinematics models, singularity and workspace analyses, and dimension optimisation are conducted. A prototype was developed, and experiments were conducted to test its mobility, accuracy, precision and stiffness. Results: The prototype robot can successfully perform the required motions, and has a precision ranging from 7 ± 2 μm to 30 ± 8 μm, accuracy from 21 ± 10 μm to 568 ± 374 μm, and stiffness ranging from 1.22 ± 0.39 N/mm to 10.53 ± 5.18 N/mm. Conclusion: The prototype robot has a great potential for performing the minimally invasive surgery. Its stiffness meets the design requirement, but its accuracy and precision need to be further improved.