IEEE ICRA 2012 Needle Steering Workshop

Needle Steering via Duty-cycled Spinning

Craig Lehocky1 and Cameron Riviere1,2

1 Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University

2 Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract

Building on recent work in steering of flexible bevel-tip needles, we present a technique for proportional control of steering via duty-cycled spinning. Flexible bevel-tip needles bend during insertion, resulting in a curved trajectory. On the other hand, this tendency can be counteracted by spinning the needle during insertion to generate a helical trajectory which appears to the user approximately as a straight line, if insertion speed and rotational velocity are selected appropriately. If the needle is spun with a duty cycle, intermediate amounts of curvature can be selected. Dynamic variation of the duty cycle can therefore be used intraoperatively to accomplish proportional control of steering. A kinematic model of the steering process has been constructed using a bicycle formulation, and experiments have been conducted in artificial media and in human cadaver brain tissue. Experiments have also been conducted with enlarged needle tips to increase bending.

Simulation in a gelatin sample of multi-point “coverage” of a lesion zone using duty-cycled spinning of a bevel-tip needle. The needle is steered to the edge of a treatment zone (A). The needle is then advanced straight forward to the boundary (B). Then the needle returns to the entry point (A), and is advanced to other points in the treatment zone (C, then D), each time returning to the same starting point (as in A). The black gridlines are 1 cm apart.


Related Publications

  • Minhas DS, Engh JA, Fenske MM, Riviere CN. Modeling of needle steering via duty-cycled spinning. Proc 28th Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2007:2756-2759.

  • Engh JA, Podnar G, Kondziolka D, Riviere CN. Toward effective needle steering in brain tissue. Proc 27th Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2006:559-562.

  • Engh JA, Podnar G, Khoo SY, Riviere CN. Flexible needle steering system for percutaneous access to deep zones of the brain. Proc. 32nd IEEE Northeast Bioeng. Conf. 2006:103-104.

Links

 

Needle Steering via Duty-cycled Spinning for Neurosurgery