Design and Control of a Computer-Assisted Laser Microsurgery System Based on Rotary Voice Coil Actuators

This paper introduces a new high-precision laser micromanipulator for transoral laser microsurgery based on Rotary Voice-Coil Actuators. The device features a direct-drive configuration, ensuring fast actuation, zero backlash, and a compact design. It also integrates a stylus-based user interface for intuitive laser control, and an adaptive control architecture with feedforward compensation for accurate trajectory tracing. Experimental validation demonstrates micrometric precision, 16 μm accuracy, setting time below 25ms, and a 16.7Hz actuation bandwidth, which enable the device to accurately follow user commands with unnoticeable delay. Furthermore, results of user trials are reported, demonstrating the intuitiveness and high usability of the new device, which make even naive users able to achieve accurate laser steering control (27±73μm) with practically no training on the device. These results demonstrate the new system is a promising advancement in robot-assisted transoral laser microsurgery.