Design of an end-effector for robot-assisted ultrasound-guided breast biopsies

Abstract

Purpose The biopsy procedure is an important phase in breast cancer diagnosis. Accurate breast imaging and precise needle placement are crucial in lesion targeting. This paper presents an end-effector (EE) for robotic 3D ultrasound (US) breast acquisitions and US-guided breast biopsies. The EE mechanically guides the needle to a specified target within the US plane. The needle is controlled in all degrees of freedom (DOFs) except for the direction of insertion, which is controlled by the radiologist. It determines the correct needle depth and stops the needle accordingly. Method In the envisioned procedure, a robotic arm performs localization of the breast, 3D US volume acquisition and reconstruction, target identification and needle guidance. Therefore, the EE is equipped with a stereo camera setup, a picobeamer, US probe holder, a three-DOF needle guide and a needle stop. The design was realized by prototyping techniques. Experiments were performed to determine needle placement accuracy in-air. The EE was placed on a seven-DOF robotic manipulator to determine the biopsy accuracy on a cuboid phantom. Results Needle placement accuracy was 0.3 ± 1.5 mm in and 0.1 ± 0.36 mm out of the US plane. Needle depth was regulated with an accuracy of 100 µm (maximum error 0.89 mm). The maximum holding force of the stop was approximately 6 N. The system reached a Euclidean distance error of 3.21 mm between the needle tip and the target and a normal distance of 3.03 mm between the needle trajectory and the target. Conclusion An all in one solution was presented which, attached to a robotic arm, assists the radiologist in breast cancer imaging and biopsy. It has a high needle placement accuracy, yet the radiologist is in control like in the conventional procedure.

In Situ Visualization for 3D Ultrasound-Guided Interventions with Augmented Reality Headset

“…The results obtained with the remaining lesions are comparable with those obtained with robotic guidance systems. The robotic system proposed by Welleweerd et al [43] can perform a breast biopsy task within a level of accuracy of 3.03 mm, measured in terms of the Euclidean distance between the needle and target. In our study, 90% of the subjects performed the task with an accuracy of 3.5 mm.…”

Wearable AR and 3D Ultrasound: Towards a Novel Way to Guide Surgical Dissections

“…Before placing it in the mould, the lesion was kept in the freezer for 3 hours to cool it and thus prevent the hot PVC-P of the parenchyma pouring from melting the outer surface of the lesion and deforming it or changing its size. Figure 9A VOLUME 4,2016 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited.…”

“…The authors proposed a new multimodal visual servoing approach that allowed the end-effector of the robotic system to perform the dissections task complying with the planned margins. Another example of US-guided robot-assisted intervention is presented in [4]. In this paper, the robot is used to automate a breast biopsy procedure.…”

Breast intervention surgery robot under image navigation: A review

“…), 77 (d) image-guided breast intervention robot system, 97 and (e) the needle device (A laser sensor on the device measures the needle position.) 83…”

“…Chen et al 81 and Zhao et al 82 designed a preloading technique to control the tumor position in real time. Welleweerd et al 83 designed an ultrasound-guided end-effector. The system is used for three-dimensional ultrasound image acquisition and needle biopsy of breast tissue.…”