That’s why researchers at the University of Utah’s John A. Moran Eye Center and the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering have collaborated to create a new robotic surgery device that aims to give surgeons “superhuman” hands.

The robot itself is extremely precise, executing movements as small as 1 micrometer (smaller than a single human cell). It is mounted directly to the patient’s head using a helmet, such that subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) movements of the patient’s head are compensated for, keeping the eye quite still from the perspective of the robot.

The robot also scales down the surgeon’s movements, measured using a handheld robotic device known as a haptic interface, to the much smaller surgical site within the eye, compensating for hand tremors along the way.