Cornea suture robot desi̇gn, analysis and implementation

The use of laparoscopic robots in surgical operations has been increasing day by day. These robots offer a serious advantage, especially in the applications on sensitive tissues, where the operator minimizes the surgeon's initiative to avoid tissue trauma caused by human error. With corneal transplant surgery; corneal tissue is damaged, and corneas of patients who have lost sight or lose sight, or corneas taken from donors are replaced with corneas to restore illness. These surgeries are mandatory; when there is no intervention or when the appropriate donor cornea is not found, the patients completely lose their ability to see. As with every step of the operation, donor cornea of the patient's eye suturing has a great effect on the success of the operation. The aim of the thesis is to develop a robotic system that can perform suturing with critical prescription in corneal transplant operations. It is aimed to make a new and original design that can throw sutures with a single robotic arm instead of classic double arm systems. In these operations, called keratoplasty, it is a primary goal of healthy cornea taken from the donor to establish a standard treatment method during the transplantation and to increase the planting success. When compared to other planting operations in the body, corneal stitching is a serious operation, and minor faults can cause severe visual disturbances. It is aimed to prevent visual defects at high grades that may occur in the eye by reducing the most miscarriages. Along with the developing technology, many operations in the past that require suturing can be carried out without blades and without fingers today; suture technique is still used in corneal transplant surgery. In keratoplasty operations where suture operation is important; there is a need for a micro-robotic system that can be used by doctors and standardize the surgical procedure. The donor cornea is a very sensitive tissue by its structure. Every intervention performed during this transplantation operation; each suture causes a traumatic effect on this tissue. These effects constitute the most important criteria for the success of the surgery and the operations with the least traumatic effects are evaluated as successful. During the operation; Repeated due to incompatibility of a suture to be thrown, increases the said traumatic effect. The cornea suture robot developed within the scope of the thesis will increase the success rate of these operations and the quality of life of the patient after surgery. The first prototype revealed at the end of the thesis work is the first in the world in its own field. Within the scope of this thesis, conceptual mechanics studies of Cornea Suture Robot which application idea was put forth and micro system mechanism to be applied were determined and 10:1 scale version was produced and operability tests were performed. Afterwards, the design concept was applied to the micro system and then the design and production researches were carried out and the mathematical models and static analyzes of the emerging design were realized. At the end of the thesis, Cornea Suture Robot test and experiments were carried out and the results are presented.