UCLA Mechatronics and Controls Lab
Undergraduate Researcher: February 2020 - March 2022
The UCLA Mechatronics and Controls Lab (Maclab) consists of a diverse group of individuals with a primary focus on servo control with applications in precision machining, engine control, and nanopositioning. The laboratory is led by Prof. Tsu-Chin Tsao and unites an enthusiastic and qualified group of graduate and undergraduate students. Due to confidentiality reasons, I am limited in what I can show here, but below are some projects I worked on at Maclab.
IRISS Robot
The research project I worked on is the IRISS (Intraocular Robotic Interventional and Surgical System) robot. The IRISS is the result of research collaboration between the Mechatronics and Control Laboratory and the Stein Eye Institute through the recently developed Advanced Robotic Eye Surgery (ARES) laboratory. The research vision is to develop a surgical platform capable of performing anterior and posterior surgical procedures via teleoperation and full automation.
OCT A-Scan Probe Holder
One of my tasks was to design mechanisms to interface various tools and sensors to the robot. For example, this mechanism integrates a eye probe sensor to collect more data. It also adds a fourth degree of freedom to the robot by rotating the probe. Some design considerations were ensuring that the motor was directly connected to the rotating body (no gears or pulleys) to eliminate any backlash, while also allowing for wires to come out the back of the sensor without getting tangled. Thus, I designed a “tuning fork” to allow the motor to attach to the rotating body while also leaving a large gap for wires to feed through. The mechanism also includes a photo-interruptor sensor and hard stop to set a consistent 0 position and also ensure that the sensor never over-rotates.
Phaco Tool Holder
The mechanism here mounts a phacoemulsifacation tool to the robot to allow it to perform phacoemulsification cataract procedures. It rotates the tool as well, ensuring that tubes coming out the back of the tool are unobstructed. This tool is very large and oddly shaped near the back, meaning a tuning fork design previously mentioned could not be used. Thus, to reduce backlash while also leaving room for tubing, the motor was moved to the side and connected to the tool via belt and pulley. A custom tensioner is added to ensure the belt is always tight to minimize backlash.
High Precision Tool Exchanger
Another one of my projects was to design a mechanism that allows the robot to easily autonomously swap tools mid-procedure. The mechanism must securely and accurately grasp the tool while also being modular and swappable. By using a kinematic coupling, the tool is magnetically attached to the robot the same way every single time. Additionally, the robot can rotate the tool freely.
This is the first physical prototype of the mechanism, which shows the scale of the device.
