Olivier Piccin

A Patient-Mounted Robotic Platform for CT-Scan Guided Procedures

In this paper, we present a novel robotic assistant dedicated to medical interventions under computed tomography scan guidance. This compact and lightweight patient-mounted robot is designed so as to fulfill the requirements of most interventional radiology procedures. It is built from an original 5 DOF parallel structure with a semispherical workspace, particularly well suited to CT-scan interventional procedures. The specifications, the design, and the choice of compatible technological solutions are detailed. A preclinical evaluation is presented, with the registration of the robot in the CT-scan.

A Force Feedback Teleoperated Needle Insertion Device for Percutaneous Procedures

A novel robotized tool for percutaneous interventions under CT-scanner guidance is presented in this paper. This teleoperated compact robotic device can be used as an end-effector for an image-guided positioning robot. It is fully compatible with computed tomography constraints. In particular, it is able to manipulate needles that are longer than the overall height of its body. This novel device mimics the manual gesture performed by the physician by grasping and re-grasping the needle. This operating principle enables direct force measurement on the inserted surgical needle and allows efficient teleoperation with force feedback. In the paper, the specifications of this needle driver are presented and the proposed design is explained. Experiments conducted on swine under operating conditions were performed in order to validate both the concept and the design of the proposed insertion device in the context of teleoperated needle insertions with force feedback.

A Parallel Robotic System with Force Sensors for Percutaneous Procedures Under CT-Guidance

This paper presents a new robotic framework for assisted CT-guided percutaneous procedures with force feedback and automatic patient-to-image registration of needle. The purpose is to help practitioners in performing accurate needle insertion while preserving them from harmful intra-operative X-rays imaging devices. Starting from medical requirements for needle insertions in the liver under CT-scan, a description of a dedicated parallel robot is made. Its geometrical and physical properties are explained. The design is mainly based on the accuracy and safety constraints. A real prototype is presented that is currently tested.

CTBot: A stereotactic-guided robotic assistant for percutaneous procedures of the abdomen

This article presents positioning results of a stereotactic robotic assistant for percutaneous needle insertions in the abdomen. The robotic system, called the CT-Bot, is succinctly described. This mechanically safe device is compatible with medical requirements and offers a novel approach robotic needle insertion with computed tomography guidance. Our system does self-registration using only visual information from a fiducial marker. The theoretical developments explain how the pose reconstruction is done using only four fiducial points and how the automatic registration algorithm is achieved. The results concern the automatic positioning of the tip of a needle with respect to a reference point selected in a CT-image. The accuracy of the positioning result show how interesting this system is for clinical use.

A Parallel 5 DOF Positioner for Semi-Spherical Workspaces

In this paper, a new five-degree-of-freedom parallel manipulator is described and modeled. This structure has been specially designed for medical applications that require in the same time mobility, compactness and accuracy around a functional point. The purpose of this robotic device is to help practitioners to perform accurate needle insertions while preserving them from harmful intra-operative X-ray imaging devices. The system is built from revolute joints, among which only five joints are actuated to convey the required five degrees of freedom to its moving platform. A numerical simulation of the workspace and a physical prototype are presented.Copyright

A robotized positioning platform guided by computed tomography : practical issues and evaluation

Medical robotics is a field where dedicated mechanisms have an increasing importance. The strong operating room constraints, both medical and practical, lead to heavily customized solutions. In this paper, we consider the practical problems that must be solved to build a robotic system dedicated to medical interventions under CT-scan guidance. This compact robotic assistant is placed on the patient what raises new generic robotic design problems. Practical solutions together with the evaluation of a prototype are presented in this paper

Design and Evaluation of a Linear Haptic Device

The commercial development of haptic devices is very promising. Existing systems are often 6-degree-of-freedom mechanisms equipped with a stylus that acts as a tool. They exhibit force feedback for 3 or 6 degrees of freedom of their end-effector, depending on whether only forces or both forces and torques are rendered. Some planar devices are also used but oddly, one-degree-of-freedom linear haptic devices are quite rare. This lack can probably be explained by the necessary mechanical transformations that are required to achieve linear motions with rotary motors. In this paper, we review several possible structures and present the design of a new one-degree-of-freedom linear haptic device with a limited number of joints and a compact design, compatible with rotary actuation. We evaluate this device in the telemanipulation context.

A robotic system for automated image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation

This paper presents a new robotic system for automated image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation, a noninvasive technique for the treatment of neurologic pathologies such as depression. This stimulation technique requires the accurate positioning of a magnetic coil in order to induce a specific cortical excitation. The neurologist currently positions the coil manually by means of a navigation system, which does not allow the precise clinical evaluation of the procedure. In this paper, a novel robotic system is proposed to assist the neurologist during a TMS session. The proposed system and its control are designed to satisfy simultaneously safety and accuracy requirements.

A ROBOTIZED NEEDLE INSERTION DEVICE FOR PERCUTANEOUS PROCEDURES

In this paper, a new robotized needle insertion device is proposed for computer-assisted percutaneous therapy. The insertion device is integrated in a robotic system dedicated to gesture guidance in a Computed Tomography (CT) scan. The presented design fulfills the stringent requirements of such a medical application: compatibility with a CT-scan and haptic control by the practitioner are ensured as well as safety and sterilization. The novel design of the insertion device is first presented, outlining its main properties, before introducing preliminary experimental results.Copyright

Active heart stabilization using adaptive noise cancelling techniques with gyroscopic actuation

Active cardiac stabilization contributes to the development of less invasive surgical techniques in the cardiac field. We propose a device insuring this function by using the gyroscopic effect to generate the compensation torque. This solution avoids any linkage to the environment and allows to design a completely independant system, pluggable on commercial instruments. After presenting the principle and the design aspects, we focus on an adaptive approach for the control and how it can be combined with frequency estimation in order to cope with variable heart frequency. Finally we present experimental results highlighting the efficiency of the method with a 70% reduction of the displacements and a highly accurate cardiac frequency tracking.