Task-oriented design of concentric tube robots using mechanics-based models

Abstract

Abstract-We introduce a method for task-oriented design of concentric tube robots, which are highly modular, tentaclelike robots with the potential to enable new minimally invasive surgical procedures. Our objective is to create a robot design on a patient-specific and surgery-specific basis to enable the robot to reach multiple clinically relevant sites while avoiding anatomical obstacles. Our method uses a mechanically accurate model of concentric tube robot kinematics that considers a robot's time-varying shape throughout the performance of a task. Our method combines a search over a robot's design space with sampling-based motion planning over its configuration space to compute a design under which the robot can feasibly perform a specified task without damaging surrounding tissues. To accelerate the algorithm, we leverage design coherence, the observation that collision-free configuration spaces of robots of similar designs are similar. If a solution exists, our method is guaranteed, as time is allowed to increase, to find a design and corresponding feasible motion plan. We provide examples illustrating the importance of using mechanically accurate models during design and motion planning and demonstrating our method's effectiveness in a medically motivated simulated scenario involving navigation through the lung.

Kinematics and performance analysis of a novel concentric tube robotic structure with embedded soft micro-actuation

“…Potential or under-development applications include endonasal skull base surgery introduced by [12], intracerebral hemorrhage evacuation by [11], surgical resection of the hippocampus by [23], transurethral laser prostate surgery by [37], surgery in otolaryngology by [58], bronchoscopy operations by [64], all developed within R. J. Webster's research group; neurosurgery and endoscopy by [5,10,13,26], beating-heart closure of atrial septal defects by [9], and suturing needle by [59] all developed within P. Dupont's research group.…”

Concentric Tube Robots: Rapid, Stable Path-Planning and Guidance for Surgical Use

“…Corresponding author: k.leibrandt12@imperial.ac.uk bronchoscopic biopsy [8]. Computational design of CTR can deliver optimal robot architectures for different surgical tasks [7], [9].…”

Implicit active constraints for safe and effective guidance of unstable concentric tube robots

“…Their size is comparable to that of catheters, but are able to apply distant forces and exhibit shape control. Therefore, they are used in similar clinically-critical interventions, such as navigating the vasculature to reach the heart [3], and snaking through the nasal cavity [4], the unary tracts [5], or the bronchia [6].…”