Ultrasound-based Needle Tracking and Lateral Manipulation Planning for Common Needle Steering

Abstract

Many medical interventions, such as drug delivery and biopsy, require steering a needle towards the desired site. Robotic needle insertion can potentially provide reliable needle access independent of practitioner experience and availability. Significant challenges for achieving automatic needle steering are: (1) tracking a needle using non-invasive imaging techniques to provide image feedback of the needle shape and the target location; (2) modeling the tissue deformation and needle bending to accurately estimate the needed manipulation; (3) planning and replanning the needle steering path to improve the safety of the steering procedure and to adapt to the dynamic environment.
This thesis presents novel methods targeting the above challenges. Two different algorithms are presented to track a partially visible needle using 2D ultrasound. One algorithm focuses on tracking a curved needle, and the other algorithm focuses on tracking a straight needle utilizing both computer vision and robot kinematics. We then present a mechanical model-based steering planning algorithm to robotically insert an ordinary clinical needle to successfully reach an internal moving target in the presence of tissue motion and needle bending.