Auris robot for opthalmic procedures

 New opthalmic dual-arm robot on the horizon (most probably a new generation of their parallel robot prototype): Dr. Fine and Nabil Simaan, head of Advanced Robotics and Mechanism Applications in the department of MecE at Columbia are co-founders of Auris Surgical Robotics. The president of the VC-funded company (est. investment is 1M) is Christopher J. P. Velis, the CEO is Fred Moll, who started at Intuitive, then launched Hansen, then Restoration robotics, and lately Auris (in 2011), besides other companies.

The robot has a total of 16 DoF, with a modular 2-DoF robotic tool for intraocular manipulation using inter-changeable surgical instruments. Dr. Fine and colleagues recently tested a prototype in animal models of retinal vasculature, successfully demonstrating cannulation of retinal veins followed by stent deployment. “To my knowledge, these are the smallest stents deployed in blood vessels,

Although the prototype exhibits 4.5 ± 0.9 μm translational precision, other features are undergoing further development or testing."

The product is planned to feature BIOLASE's patented WaterLase YSGGall-tissue atraumatic cutting technology.

Source: AAO,

Image credit: Inventorspot, NYT