Joseph F. Giallo II, Leonardo S. Mattos, Sam Miller, Zack Neistedt, Mark Draelos, Gordon Lee, and Edward Grant

Abstract — This paper describes the design and validation of a new medical robotic system for automating laser phonomicrosurgeries. Initially, the goal was to design a laser aiming system to improve human control over currently available systems, both medically and ergonomically. However, with the new system, it quickly became apparent that design sub-goals had to be established, in particular sub-goals related to surgical margin definition and for the interactive user interface. To assist the surgeon, the humancomputer interface design needed to be based on a motorized and computer-controlled laser micro-manipulator, controlled remotely via an electronic joystick. With this new system, the surgeon is better placed ergonomically to conduct the surgery, and the prospect of a fully automated procedure became a practicality. This new system was modeled and simulated as well as fabricated, calibrated, and tested. Control algorithms were developed for testing system positional accuracy, consistency, motion scaling, and limitations. The software for automating laser micromanipulator motions, for tumor ablation, was based on active contours for defining tumor ablation margins.