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Visual Servoing of Intraocular Microrobots


2007_microrobot-docked-in-vein
At the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems we are developing a biomedical microrobot capable of performing operations and sensing in the vitreous humor of the human eye. My task is to bridge medicine and engineering, by researching methods to visualize, localize, and track the microrobot in the posterior of the human eye. The image on the right shows the microrobot docked in a chicken embryo vein (courtesy IRIS).

Media Publicity
  1. Science et Vie Junior, July 2010: Des microrobots dans le corps humain.
  2. New Scientist, November 2009: Rise of the Medirobots. (here)
  3. ETHLife, July 2009: "MagMite" outperforms the competition. (here)
  4. Nano, 3Sat, March 2009: Zürcher machen aus Darmkameras winizige Roboter. (here)
  5. Einstein, SF1, Feburary 2009: Darmspiegelung mit Minikamera.
  6. Hi-Tch, Euronews, January 2009: Honey, I shrunk the Endoscopy.
  7. Nouvo, TSR, December 2008: Cherie, j' ai retrechi le medecin.
  8. The Economist, September 2008, Swallow the surgeon. (here)
  9. BBC Click: Features the microrobotic projects at IRIS.
  10. Kathimerini, September 2008: Features the intraocular microrobot project.
  11. ETHLife, December 2007 Gold für gebildete Bakterien. (here)

Recent Awards
  1. Member of the World Champion ETH Team at the Nanogram Robotic League, Robocup, Austria, 2009.
  2. Best Student Paper Finalist, and Best Conference Paper Finalist at the Int. Conf. Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob), Scottsdale, Arizona, 2008.
  3. Hellenic Chamber of Engineers award for overall academic performance, 2008.
  4. Best Presentation Award, and Gold Medal at the Int. Competition on Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM), Boston, Massachussets, 2007.

Journal Publications
  1. C. Bergeles, K. Shamaei, J. J. Abbott, and B. J. Nelson, “Single-Camera Focus- Based Localization of Intraocular Devices,” IEEE Trans. Biomedical Engineering, vol. 57, no. 8, pp. 2064-2074, 2010. (pdf)
  2. L. Zhang, J. J. Abbott, L. Dong, K. Peyer, B. E. Kratochvil, H. Zhang, C. Bergeles, and B. J. Nelson, “Characterizing the Swimming Properties of Artificial Bacterial Flagella,” Nano Letters, vol. 9, no. 10, pp. 3663–3667, 2009. (pdf)

International Conference Publications
  1. C. Bergeles, M. P. Kummer, B. E. Kratochvil, J. J. Abbott, and B. J. Nelson, “Ex-vivo Experiments with Intraocular Microrobots,” Poster Presentation, in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Workshop on Mesoscale Robotics for Medical Interventions, 2010, Anchorage, AK, USA. (pdf)
  2. C. Bergeles, K. Shamaei, J. J. Abbott, and B. J. Nelson, “Wide-Ange Localization of Intraocular Devices from Focus,” in Proc. IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2009, St. Louis, MO, USA. (pdf)
  3. C. Bergeles, K. Shamaei, J. J. Abbott, and B. J. Nelson, “Wide-Angle Intraocular Imaging and Localization,” in Proc. Int. Conf. Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI), pp. 540–548, 2009, London, UK. (pdf)
  4. C. Bergeles, G. Fagogenis, J. J. Abbott, and B. J. Nelson, “Tracking Intraocular Microdevices Based on Colorspace Evaluation and Statistical Color/Shape Information,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 3934–3939, 2009, Kobe, JP. (pdf)
  5. C. Bergeles, K. Shamaei, J. J. Abbott, and B. J. Nelson, “On Imaging and Local- izing Untethered Intraocular Devices with a Stationary Camera,” IEEE RAS/EMBS Int. Conf. Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob), pp. 489–494, 2008, Scottsdale, AZ, USA, Finalist, Best Student Paper, Best Conference Paper. (pdf)

Book Chapters
  1. O. Ergeneman, C. Bergeles, M. P. Kummer, J. J. Abbott, B. N. Nelson, “Wireless Intraocular Microrobots: Opportunities and Challenges,” J. Rosen, B. Hannaford, and R. Satava, editors, Surgical Robotics: Systems, Applications, and Visions. In Press.

Patents and Technology
  1. “Safer Retinal Disorder Diagnosis with a Handheld Camera with Direct Digital Output”, presented at the Techconnect Summit, 2009, Houston, TX, USA.
  2. K. Shamaei, C. Bergeles, J. J. Abbott, and B. J. Nelson, “Ophthalmoscopy Using Direct Sensing of the Flat Aerial Image Created by an Aspheric Lens”, 2008. (pdf)