Safe Motion Planning for Steerable Needles Using Cost Maps Automatically Extracted from Pulmonary Images

Fu, Mengyu; Kuntz, Alan; Webster, Robert J.; Alterovitz, Ron

doi:10.1109/iros.2018.8593407

Cited by 20 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…We illustrate in Fig. 1 a volumetric model of the relevant anatomy segmented from a CT scan [18]. In this procedure, the steerable needle is deployed from a bronchoscope inside the lung and must steer from the start pose just outside a bronchial tube (the furthest pose reachable by the bronchoscope) to the nodule while avoiding anatomical obstacles that include the large blood vessels, the bronchial tubes, and the lung boundary.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward Certifiable Motion Planning for Medical Steerable Needles

Fu¹,

Salzman²,

Alterovitz³

2021

Robotics: Science and Systems XVII

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Medical steerable needles can move along 3D curvilinear trajectories to avoid anatomical obstacles and reach clinically significant targets inside the human body. Automating steerable needle procedures can enable physicians and patients to harness the full potential of steerable needles by maximally leveraging their steerability to safely and accurately reach targets for medical procedures such as biopsies and localized therapy delivery for cancer. For the automation of medical procedures to be clinically accepted, it is critical from a patient care, safety, and regulatory perspective to certify the correctness and effectiveness of the motion planning algorithms involved in procedure automation. In this paper, we take an important step toward creating a certifiable motion planner for steerable needles. We introduce the first motion planner for steerable needles that offers a guarantee, under clinically appropriate assumptions, that it will, in finite time, compute an exact, obstacle-avoiding motion plan to a specified target, or notify the user that no such plan exists. We present an efficient, resolution-complete motion planner for steerable needles based on a novel adaptation of multi-resolution planning. Compared to state-of-the-art steerable needle motion planners (none of which provide any completeness guarantees), we demonstrate that our new resolution-complete motion planner computes plans faster and with a higher success rate.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward Certifiable Motion Planning for Medical Steerable Needles

Fu¹,

Salzman²,

Alterovitz³

2021

Robotics: Science and Systems XVII

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The results show that by varying the velocity of the waterjet and thus cut-depth of the waterjet in soft tissue, the curvature can be controlled. This promises a better method for curvature control in comparison to the steerable needle literature where duty cycling (continual spinning of the needle) is used to control curvature [8], [27], [28], [29]. Duty-cycle methods must account for the inherent torsional windup associated with twisting a long, super-elastic needle about the insertion axis [30], [31].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fracture-directed Waterjet Needle Steering: Design, Modeling, and Path Planning

Babaiasl

Yang

Boccelli

et al. 2020

2020 8th IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference for Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Steerable needle technology has the promise of improving outcomes by enhancing the accuracy of different therapies and biopsies, as they can be steered to a target location around obstacles. Achieving small radius of curvature and being able to control both radius of curvature and tip travel are of paramount importance in steerable needles to accomplish the increase in efficacy of the medical procedures. In this paper, we present a new class of the steerable needles, which we call waterjet-directed steerable needles, where the underlying principle is to first control the direction of tissue fracture with waterjet, after which the needle will follow during subsequent insertion. In this paper, the direction of the tissue fracture is controlled by an angled waterjet nozzle and control of the water velocity, and then the flexible Nitinol needle follows. It is shown that by changing the velocity of waterjet and thus depth of cut, radius of curvature can be controlled. A discrete-step kinematic model is used to model the motion of the waterjet steerable needle. This model consist of two parts: (1) the mechanicsbased model predicts the cut-depth of waterjet in soft tissue based on soft tissue properties, waterjet diameter, and water exit velocity, and (2) a discrete-step kinematic unicycle model of the steerable needle travel. Path planning is accomplished through a genetic algorithm, and the efficacy of waterjet steerable needle is tested for different paths. The key finding of the paper is that the radius of curvature of the waterjet steerable needle can be controlled by a fixed waterjet tip angle and varying water exit velocity to control the depth of cut.

show abstract

“…Due to the many airways and other obstacles present in lung tissue, we scanned the lung using the CT scanner shown in Fig. 5 (The Xoran xCAT, Xoran Technologies, USA), and performed segmentation according to [35]. We then selected a region where the needle could be inserted without rotation and with no collisions, and inserted along this path.…”

Section: Closed-loop Control In Inflated Porcine Lungmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used the actuation unit described in [30], integrated with the overall system concept in [5], in which the needle is delivered through a bronchoscope. After inflating the lung via an endotracheal tube, we captured a preoperative CT scan using a portable CT scanner (Xoran Technologies, USA) and performed lung segmentation as described in [35]. We then manually selected target points in the peripheral lung and steered our needle to each.…”

Section: Closed-loop Control In Inflated Porcine Lungmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decoupling Steerability From Diameter: Helical Dovetail Laser Patterning for Steerable Needles

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The maximum curvature of a steerable needle in soft tissue is highly sensitive to needle shaft stiffness, which has motivated use of small diameter needles in the past. However, desired needle payloads constrain minimum shaft diameters, and shearing along the needle shaft can occur at small diameters and high curvatures. We provide a new way to adjust needle shaft stiffness (thereby enhancing maximum curvature, i.e. "steerability") at diameters selected based on needle payload requirements. We propose helical dovetail laser patterning to increase needle steerability without reducing shaft diameter. Experiments in phantoms and ex vivo animal muscle, brain, liver, and inflated lung tissues demonstrate high steerability in soft tissues. These experiments use needle diameters suitable for various clinical scenarios, and which have been previously limited by steering challenges without helical dovetail patterning. We show that steerable needle targeting remains accurate with established controllers and demonstrate interventional payload delivery (brachytherapy seeds and radiofrequency ablation) through the needle. Helical dovetail patterning decouples steerability from diameter in needle design. It enables diameter to be selected based on clinical requirements rather than being carefully tuned to tissue properties. These results pave the way for new sensors and interventional tools to be integrated into high-curvature steerable needles.

show abstract

Safe Motion Planning for Steerable Needles Using Cost Maps Automatically Extracted from Pulmonary Images

Cited by 20 publications

References 39 publications

Toward Certifiable Motion Planning for Medical Steerable Needles

Toward Certifiable Motion Planning for Medical Steerable Needles

Fracture-directed Waterjet Needle Steering: Design, Modeling, and Path Planning

Decoupling Steerability From Diameter: Helical Dovetail Laser Patterning for Steerable Needles

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About