Automation of Robotic Laser Tissue Soldering for Minimally Invasive Surgery

Abstract Laser tissue soldering (LTS) represents a promising alternative to conventional suturing methods in minimally invasive surgery (MIS). This paper presents a novel robotic control framework that aims to automate the LTS approach. The method involves attaching a soldering laser to a laparoscopically-guided robotic arm. The pose of the external laparoscope is estimated online, while detecting the soldering paste simultaneously utilizing a segmentation algorithm. The presented vision-based control shows promising results, as it is able to track the soldering paste in real-time with a maximum average deviation from the target path of 5mm, while reacting to camera and tissue movements.