The BIROMED-Lab has developed a minimal-invasive robot for cutting bone with high power laser light within the MIRACLE project (short for Minimal-Invasive Robot-Assisted Computer-guided LaserosteotomE). The miniature robot can be introduced into the human body through small incisions. Inside the body, e.g. in the human knee joint [1], the robot fixes itself to the target tissue and can guide the laser light at high precision to the target location [2]. When the robot has performed all necessary cuts, it can “walk” to a new position on the target tissue and continue its work [3].

The advantages of minimal-invasive laser cutting with a robot are:

• cuts will be executed as planned
• access holes are small
• (thermal) damage to adjacent tissue is minimal
• cuts can have predefined functions (e.g. stability by forms, guidance for reassembly by design)
• healing times are shorter than mechanical cuts.

Since one year, we also investigate the advantage of laser cuts for regenerative cartilage surgery to treat arthritis.