Robotic assistance is used today in a variety of surgeries as a means of precise, dexterous, and minimally-invasive manipulation. However, practical use in microsurgical environments such as vitreoretinal surgery remains a challenge for the most common mechanically-grounded robotic platforms. Microsurgery requires micron-level accuracy and the ability to manipulate with interaction forces in millinewtons. Vitreoretinal surgery specifically requires line-of-sight through the lens of the eye and maintaining a remote center of motion (RCM) at the incision point in the eye.

A handheld manipulator, Micron, has been presented to address the unique challenges of microsurgery. It enables the manipulator to scale down a surgeon’s motion, actively cancel their involuntary tremor, and resist moving the tooltip into unsafe areas. Since the manipulator is handheld, it does not significantly obstruct the operating room and allows the surgeon to still feel haptic feedback during surgery. The manipulator is also capable of moving around an RCM at the sclerotomy. However, the manipulator’s mechanical design necessitated unreliable motors that have a low stall force and a more reliable iteration was needed.