Lesion positioning method of a CT-guided surgical robotic system for minimally invasive percutaneous lung

Robot-assisted puncture has gradually attracted more attention and practical clinical application. The lesion positioning and the needle positioning are the basis to ensure the accuracy of puncture and the key techniques in insertion operation.

A lesion positioning method is established which is realized only by the robot-CT system without using external positioning system, and an omnidirectional needle positioning method is also developed and realized by using VRCM, in order to make the puncture needle always keep pointing to the lesion point. A CT-guided surgical robotic system used for minimally invasive percutaneous lung is designed and the physical prototype is manufactured, to perform in-vitro experiments, thereby to validate the effectiveness of the lesion positioning method and the feasibility of omnidirectional needle positioning method.

The accuracy of established lesion positioning method based on three non-collinear markers is within 3 mm, which is similar to that of the least squares method based on the five non-coplanar markers, but the positioning efficiency can be improved by about 40%, and the non-collinearity of markers is easier to be satisfied than non-coplanarity in practical applications. The average calculation error of the established positioning method is 0.997 mm. Moreover, the omnidirectional positioning of the puncture needle under the designed surgical robot is feasible.

The designed surgical robot has good control accuracy and it can satisfy the requirements for use. The established lesion positioning method can provide a good precision basis for robot-assisted puncture surgery. The suitable insertion point and insertion posture can be determined by the developed omnidirectional needle positioning method. This study can provide theoretical reference for further study of path planning or autonomous positioning.