Teleoperated and Automated Control of a Robotic Tool for Targeted Prostate Biopsy

This work presents a robotic tool with bidirectional manipulation and control capabilities for targeted prostate biopsy interventions. Targeted prostate biopsy is an effective image-guided technique that results in detection of significant cancer with fewer cores and lower number of unnecessary biopsies compared to systematic biopsy. The robotic tool comprises of a compliant flexure section fabricated on a nitinol tube that enables bidirectional bending via actuation of two internal tendons, and a biopsy mechanism for extraction of tissue samples. The kinematic and static models of the compliant flexure section, as well as teleoperated and automated control of the robotic tool are presented and validated with experiments. It was shown that the controller can force the tip of the robotic tool to follow sinusoidal set-point positions with reasonable accuracy in air and inside a phantom tissue. Finally, the capability of the robotic tool to bend, reach targeted positions inside a phantom tissue, and extract a biopsy sample is evaluated.