LARA: Laser-assisted robotic surgery for maxillofacial intervention

This chapter deals with a project that combines two technologies that have had a considerable impact in the medical field: robotics and lasers. Over the last decade, these two technologies used independently have had a profound impact not only on medical practices but also on the patient care pathway and have made it possible, with other technologies, to pave the way for accurate medicine where the patient's care pathway has been digitized and automated from screening, diagnosis and treatment, and monitoring. The aim of this chapter will be to provide a new, high-performance tool combining these two technologies, robotics and laser, for cutting bone in maxillofacial surgery. The work will make it possible to produce a prototype combining a femtosecond laser source optimized for cutting bone with a robotic arm and online positioning and monitoring systems allowing the surgeon to perform high-performance, contactless surgical procedures that are more precise and describe complex trajectories, thus improving the quality of cutting and regeneration of bone tissue as well as securing the surgical procedure.