Autonomous Clear Corneal Incision Guided by Force-Vision Fusion

Clear corneal incision, a challenging step in cataract surgery, is important to the overall quality of the surgery. New surgeons usually spend one full year trying to perfect their incision, but even after such rigorous training deficient incisions can still occur. This article proposes an improved autonomous robotic system for this self-sealing incision. An imaging system with a monocular camera is used to capture the surgical scene and determine the position of the scalpel. Kinematics with a remote center of motion is designed for a multiaxes robot with a force sensor and the new approach of force-vision fusion is five times faster to perform a similar incision. A four-stage initial route and a five parts surgical route are designed and evaluated. The experimental results on exvivo porcine eyes show the autonomous clear corneal incision has a stricter three-plane structure than a surgeon-made incision, which is closer to the ideal incision.