A system for robot assisted maxillofacial surgery

In maxillofacial surgery the quality of the surgical outcome mainly depends on the experience of the operating surgeon. Thus we intend to support the surgeon before and during surgery in order to enhance the surgical results. On the one hand this implies the use of image processing, three dimensional modelling techniques and visualization techniques of medical image data, on the other hand planning systems, intraoperative navigation devices and surgical robots are needed. In this paper a complex expert system is presented, which uses a planner for generating treatment plans, an infrared navigation for monitoring both patient, robot, and surgical tool, and a surgical robotic system in order to work on bone. Special stress is laid on the architecture of the planning system, the structure of the treatment plans, and the intraoperative communication protocols.