Intra-operative imaging is sometimes available to assist needle biopsy, but typical open-loop insertion does not account for unmodeled needle deflection or target shift. Closed-loop image-guided compensation for deviation from an initial straight-line trajectory through rotational control of an asymmetric tip can reduce targeting error. Incorporating robotic closed-loop control often reduces physician interaction with the patient, but by pairing closed-loop trajectory compensation with hands-on cooperatively controlled insertion, a physician's control of the procedure can be maintained while incorporating benefits of robotic accuracy. A series of needle insertions were performed with a typical 18G needle using closed-loop active compensation under both fully autonomous and user-directed cooperative control. We demonstrated equivalent improvement in accuracy while maintaining physician-in-the-loop control with no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) in the targeting accuracy between any pair of autonomous or individual cooperative sets, with average targeting accuracy of 3.56 mm. With cooperatively controlled insertions and target shift between 1 and 10 mm introduced upon needle contact, the system was able to effectively compensate up to the point where error approached a maximum curvature governed by bending mechanics. These results show closed-loop active compensation can enhance targeting accuracy, and that the improvement can be maintained under user directed cooperative insertion.
This year marks the 10 th anniversary of the Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, which was held at the Royal Geographical Society from 25 th to 28 th June 2017. On this special occasion, we set the theme of this year's symposium as 'The Next 10 Years: Challenges, Innovation and Diffusion of Medical Robotics.' We had the honour of an impressive line-up of leading scientists and engineers in medical robotics, covering intra-operative imaging and sensing, smart surgical instruments, soft and continuum robotics, micro-nano robots, surgical workflow analysis, surgical vision, clinical highlights and first-inhuman studies. This year's Storz-Hopkins lecture was delivered by Professor Joseph Sung,
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