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This research develops a robot plan for a system that automatically debrides burned tissue on burn victims using a high energy laser for the ablation of the burned tissue. The automated robotic system consists of: a robot whose end effector is equipped with a laser head whence the laser beam emanates and a vision system that is used to acquire the 3D coordinates of some points on the body surface; 3D surface modelling routines for generating the surface model of the treatment area; and control and interface hardware and software for control and integration of all the system components. The entire process of automated burn debridement is achieved in two phases: an initial survey phase during which a model of the treatment area on the skin is built and used to plan an appropriate trajectory for the robot in the subsequent phase--the treatment phase during which the laser surgery is performed. During the survey phase, the vision system acquires points on the surface of the patient's body by using a camera to capture the contour traced by a plane of low power laser light generated by the laser source gut distinct from the high power laser beam. During this phase, a robot plan is generated for moving the end effector along the correct direction so that the camera can capture enough contours needed to build an accurate surface model of the treatment are. During the treatment phase, the surface model developed during the survey phase is used to generate the robot plan for ablating the dead skin tissue. To achieve this, the burned area is first defined on the model. Then based on the shape of the patterns, the trajectory to be followed by the laser head to accomplish complete debridement of the dead tissue is generated. Fourthly, with the point interpolated trajectory necessary for effective treatment obtained, the robot plans the motions necessary for laser ablation of the dead tissue without an over- or under-cut. Accomplishing these steps leads to the generation of a plan for effective dead tissue ablation.
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