Piezoelectrically Actuated MRI-Compatible Robot for Prostate Interventions

MRI has potential to be a superior medical imaging modality for guiding and monitoring prostatic interventions. MRI can provide high-quality 3D visualization of prostate and surrounding tissue. However, the benefits can not be readily harnessed for interventional procedures due to difficulties that surround the use of highfield (1.5T or greater). The strong magnetic field prevents the use of conventional mechatronics and the confined physical space makes it extremely challenging to access the patient. We have designed a robotic assistant system that overcomes these difficulties and promises safe and reliable intra-prostatic needle placement inside closed high-field MRI scanners.

6-DOF Cylindrical Approach Prostate Intervention Robot

We have developed the first prototype of a MRI-compatible piezoelectric actuated robot integrated with a high-resolution fiber optic sensor for prostate brachytherapy with real-time in situ needle steering capability in 3T MRI. The 6-DOF robot consists of a modular 3-DOF needle driver with fiducial tracking frame and a 3-DOF actuated Cartesian stage. The needle driver provides needle cannula rotation and translation (2-DOF) and stylet translation (1-DOF). The driver mimics the manual physician gesture by two point grasping.

6-DOF Conical Approach Prostate Intervention Robot

By leveraging a novel mechanism, the 2nd version of the 6-DOF manipulator provides 2-DOF Cartesian motion, 2-DOF pitch and yaw motion and 2-DOF needle translation/rotation motion. Primarily built up with dielectric materials, it utilizes parallel mechanism and is compact in size to fit into the limited space of close-bore MRI scanner. The platform is designed to serve a modular base for needle-based surgical procedures which usually require positioning and orientation control for accurate imaging plane alignment. In the primary application, this modular manipulator is coupled with a 2-DOF needle driver module for prostate interventional applications. In addition, this robotic system provides software programmed remote center of motion and is capable of more dexterous prostate intervention.

MRI-compatible Concentric Tube Robot

This 4-DOF concentric tube robot utilizes three super elastic tubes. By controlling the translation and rotation motion of each tube, it is one type of steerable needle that is capable of generating controllable curved shapes to follow anatomical constraints and reach surgical cites that are traditionally inaccessible. The potential application of this tool is MRI-guided neurological biopsy and ablation. This work is collaborated with Vanderbilt university.

Related Publications

Su H, Li G, Rucker C, Webster III RJ, Fischer GS, A Concentric Tube Continuum Robot with Piezoelectric Actuation for MRI-Guided Closed-loop Targeting, Annals of Biomedical Engineering (ABME) - Journal of the Biomedical Engineering Society, Vol 44, No 10, pp 2863-2873, Oct 2016. Springer, PubMed
Eslami S, Shang W, Li G, Patel N, Fischer GS, Tokuda J, Hata N, Tempany CM, Iordachita I,, In-Bore Prostate Transperineal Interventions with an MRI-guided Parallel Manipulator: System Development and Preliminary Evaluation, Int. Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, Vol 12, No 2, pp 199-213, June 2016. Wiley
Su H, Shang W, Cole GA, Li G, Harrington K, Camilo A, Tokuda J, Tempany CM, Hata N, Fischer GS, Piezoelectrically Actuated Robotic System for MRI-Guided Prostate Percutaneous Therapy, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Vol 20, No 4, Aug 2015. IEEE, PDF
Tokuda J, Tuncali K, Shang W, Patel N, Li G, Heffter T, Fischer GS, Iordachita I, Burdette EC, Hata N, Tempany CM, Clinical Application of Needle Guiding Manipulator for MRI-Guided Transperineal Prostate Biopsy, IEEE EMBC 2015, Milan, Italy, Aug. 2015.
Ji W, Matte JD, Li G, Ma Y, Su H, Shang W, Fischer GS, Reconfigurable Fiducial-Integrated Modular Needle Driver for MRI-Guided Percutaneous Interventions, Design of Medical Devices Conferences (DMD), Minneapolis, MN, April 2013. ASME, DMD
Li G, Su H, Shang W, Tokuda J, Hata N, Tempany CM, Fischer GS, A Fully Actuated Robotic Assistant for MRI-Guided Prostate Biopsy and Brachytherapy, SPIE Medical Imaging (Image-Guided Procedures, Robotic Interventions, and Modeling Conference), Orlando, USA, Feb. 2013. PubMed, SPIE
Fischer GS, Su H, Shang W, Li G, Hata N, Tempany C, Teleoperated Needle Placement for Real-time MRI-guided Prostate Interventions, 9th Interventional MRI Symposium (iMRI), Boston, MA, USA, Sept. 2012.
Su H, Cardona D, Shang W, Cole GA, Rucker C, Webster III R, Fischer GS, A MRI-Guided Concentric Tube Continuum Robot with Piezoelectric Actuation: A Feasibility Study, IEEE ICRA 2012 International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA, May 2012 (Best medical robotics paper finalist). IEEE, PDF
Fischer GS, Shang W, Su H , Robot-Assisted Needle Alignment with Image-Guided Teleoperated Needle Insertion for Prostate Cancer Interventions, 20th Scientific Meeting and Exhibition of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine - ISMRM 2012, May 2012. PDF
Su H, Shang W, Harrington K, Camilo A, Cole GA, Tokuda J, Hata N, Tempany CM, Fischer GS, A Networked Modular Hardware and Software System for MRI-guided Robotic Prostate Interventions, SPIE Medical Imaging, San Diego, USA, Feb. 2012. SPIE, PDF
Su H, Fischer GS, High-field MRI-Compatible Needle Placement Robots for Prostate Interventions: Pneumatic and Piezoelectric Approaches, eds. T. Gulrez and A. Hassanien, Advances in Robotics and Virtual Reality, Springer-Verlag, Intelligent Systems Reference Library, Vol 26, pp 3-32, 2012. Springer, PDF
Swaney P, Burgner J, Cardona D, Su H, Pheiffer T, Rucker C, Lathop R, Gilbert H, Fischer GS, Miga M, Webster III R, Image-Guided Targeting of Concentric Tube Robots: Experiments using Ultrasound, Computed Tomography, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging, IEEE IROS IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Workshop on Image-Guided Medical Robotic Interventions, San Fransico, USA, Sept. 2011. PDF
Su H, Yan X, Fischer GS, A 4-DOF Parallel Robotic Platform for MR Image-Guided Percutaneous Prostate Interventions, IEEE IROS IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Workshop on Image-Guided Medical Robotic Interventions, San Fransico, USA, Sept. 2011. PDF
Su H, Iordachita I, Yan X, Cole GA, Fischer GS, Reconfigurable MRI-Guided Robotic Surgical Manipulator: Prostate Brachytherapy and Neurosurgery Applications, In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), Boston, USA, Aug. 2011. PubMed, IEEE
Su H, Zervas M, Cole GA, Furlong C, Fischer GS, Real-time MRI-Guided Needle Placement Robot with Integrated Fiber Optic Force Sensing, IEEE ICRA 2011 International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Shanghai, China, pp 1583-1588, May 2011. PDF, ICRA, BibTex, EndNote
Su H, Camilo A, Cole GA, Tempany CM, Hata N, Fischer GS, High-Field MRI-Compatible Needle Placement Robot for Prostate Interventions, Proceedings of MMVR18 (Medicine Meets Virtual Reality), Newport Beach, California, USA, February, 2011, PDF
Su H, Fischer GS, Active Needle Steering System for Percutaneous Prostate Intervention in High-field MRI, Robotics Science and Systems, Workshop on Enabling Technologies for Image-Guided Interventional Procedures, June 2010. PDF
Su H, Harrington K, Cole GA, Wang Y, Fischer GS, Modular Needle Steering Driver for MRI-guided Transperineal Prostate Intervention, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Workshop on Snakes, Worms and Catheters: Continuum and Serpentine Robots for Minimally Invasive Surgery, Anchorage, AK, May 2010. BU, PDF
Su H, Shang W, Cole GA, Harrington K, Fischer GS, Haptic System Design for MRI-Guided Needle Based Prostate Brachytherapy, Haptics Symposium - Haptics 2010, Waltham, Massachusetts, March 2010. PDF
Su H, Shang W, Cole GA, Harrington K, Fischer GS, Design of a Haptic Device for MRI-Guided Prostate Needle Brachytherapy, IEEE Haptics Symposium, Boston, USA, March 2010. PDF, BibTex, EndNote
Su H, Harrington K, Cole GA, Fischer GS, Active Needle Steering for Percutaneous Prostate Intervention in High-field MRI, 2010 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference, Workshop on Enabling Technologies for Image-Guided Robotic Interventional Procedures, Zaragoza, Spain, 2010. PDF