Title: Design of the needle-driven robot for radio frequency ablation therapy based on ultrasound navigation

Authors: Qinjun Du; Xueyi Zhang; Hui Chen

Addresses: School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, 12 Zhangzhou road, Shandong Zibo, 255091 China. ' School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, 12 Zhangzhou road, Shandong Zibo, 255091 China. ' School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, 12 Zhangzhou road, Shandong Zibo, 255091 China

Abstract: The ultrasonic image guided radio frequency ablation surgery is an effective technique in liver tumour treatment. However, the traditional surgery imposes a constraint for surgeons to have high precision in their hand–eye coordination. This paper discusses the design of an assisted medical robot system to reduce these requirements; the needle-driven robot system consists of needle-driven robot, 3D model navigation and a magnetic tracker. In the pre-operative phase, 3D model of the liver tumour is reconstructed and the needle insertion path is planed. In the intra-operative phase, the surgeon matches the pre-operative 3D model of the liver with real patient’s liver. Then, the needle-driven robot moves accurately at the target point where the surgeon inserts the needle into the liver tumour to destroy the tumour with microwave coagulation. A small and compact medical robot is proposed based on workspace optimisation in this paper. Experimental results show that the needle-driven robot location errors are less than 0.2 mm, whereas the robot ultrasound navigation system errors are less than 2.5 mm.

Keywords: needle-driven robots; workspace optimisation; ultrasound navigation; radio frequency ablation surgery; liver tumours; cancer treatment; liver cancer; medical robots; assistive technology; robot navigation; robot tracking; magnetic tracker; 3D modelling; needle insertion path; path planning; microwave coagulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2011.043886

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2011 Vol.42 No.1, pp.65 - 72

Published online: 27 Nov 2011 *

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