Systems and methods for 3D data driven laser orientation planning

A method comprising:

• providing a pre-ablation surface;
• labeling a three-dimensional obstacle boundary that separates material to be removed by a laser and material to remain;
• predicting, using a gaussian-based model for the laser, a plurality of post-ablation surfaces for a plurality of orientations of the laser relative to the pre-ablation surface;
• generating a Euclidean distance transform metric for each of the plurality of post-ablation surfaces;
• wherein the Euclidean distance transform metric is a measurement of a distance between a query point on the post-ablation surface to the closest point on the three-dimensional obstacle boundary;
• determining an optimum orientation of the laser from the plurality of orientations of the laser that results in a predicted post-ablation surface that does not intersect the three-dimensional obstacle boundary and maximizes the Euclidean distance transform metric between the predicted post-ablation surface and the three-dimensional obstacle boundary;
• moving the laser to the optimum orientation;
• and
• energizing the laser while positioned at the optimum orientation.