Visual servoing in medical robotics.

International audienceThe paper achieves a review of visual servoing approaches and their use in medical robotics

Epipolar geometry for vision-guided laser surgery.

International audienceThe μRALP project involves the development of a system for endoluminal laser phonosurgery, i.e. surgery of the vocal chords using a laser emitted from inside the larynx. Indeed, in current laryngeal laser surgical procedures, a beam of incision laser is projected on the target position of the soft tissue from the working distance of 400mm by means of a rigid laryngoscope (Fig.1). This yields safety concerns for the patient and staff, as well as limitations to accuracy. More, this so-called laryngeal suspension position of the patient requires an extreme extension of the neck, which makes it painful several days after the operation

Preliminary variation on multiview geometry for vision-guided laser surgery.

International audienceThis paper proposes to use the multiview geometry to control an orientable laser beam for surgery. Two methods are proposed based on the analogy between a scanning laser beam and a camera: the first method uses one camera and the laser scanner as a virtual camera to form a virtual stereoscopic system while the second method uses two cameras to form a virtual trifocal system. Using the associated epipolar or trifocal geometry, two control laws are derived without any matrix inversion nor estimation of the 3D scene. It is shown that the more geometry is used, the simpler the control gets. These control laws show, as expected, exponential convergence in simulation validation

Preliminary variation on vision-guided laser phonomicrosurgery using multiview geometry.

International audienceThis work focuses on vision-guided laser surgery of the vocal folds. It is part of the FP7-ICT project "μRALP". A new surgical device is studied: it will be flexible and small enough to pass through the mouth and throat and come closer to the vocal folds. It will include a flexible laryngoscope, some image bundles to return images of the vocal folds, an optical fiber to provide the intervention laser beam, a rotating mirror to steer the laser beam and channels for tools. From an interface the surgeon will define the path of the laser for intervention (ablation as well as dissection) on the deseased tissues and then switch on the device. The device will allow the achievement of accurate interventions. Indeed, the laser will be very close to the tissues (about 20 mm) and controlled using visual servoing approaches known to be stable, precise and robust. It will reduce post-operative pains for the patients by maintaining the neck in a comfortable position during interventions