A Novel Laser Scalpel System for Computer-assisted Laser Surgery

Laser scalpels are utilized across a variety of surgical and dermatological procedures due to their precision and non-contact nature. This paper presents a novel laser scalpel system for superficial laser therapy applications. The system integrates a RGB-D camera, a 3D triangulation sensor and a carbon dioxide $( CO _{2})$ laser scalpel for computer-assisted laser surgery. To accurately ablate targets chosen from the color image, a 3D extrinsic calibration method between the RGB-D camera frame and the laser coordinate system is implemented. The accuracy of the calibration method is tested on phantoms with planar and cylindrical surfaces. Positive error and negative error, as defined as undershooting and overshooting over the target area, are reported for each test. For 60 total test cases, the root-mean-square of the positive and negative error in both planar and cylindrical phantoms is less than 1.0 mm, with a maximum absolute error less than 2.0 mm. This work demonstrates the feasibility of automated laser therapy with surgeon oversight via our sensor system.