Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 17, 2026
Three-Dimensional Finger Motion Tracking during Needling: A Solution for the Kinematic Analysis of Acupuncture Manipulation
Published on: October 28, 2021
High-Precision Autonomous Control of Flexible Needles via Real-Time Finite Element Simulation and Cross-Entropy
Yanzhou Wang1, Chang Chang1, Junling Mei1
1Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Laboratory of Computational Sensing and Robotics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Abstract:
This paper presents a unified framework for autonomous flexible needle control in soft tissues using real-time finite element (FE) simulation and cross-entropy (CE) optimization. The method combines a sampling-based model predictive controller (MPC) for trajectory tracking with a kinematic-based bang-bang strategy to coordinate needle insertion, lateral adjustments, and bevel rotations. Sparse electromagnetic (EM) tracking feedback enables needle state reconstruction and compensates for model uncertainties. Experiments in plastisol and ex vivo chicken breast phantoms show sub-millimeter targeting accuracy, with respective targeting errors 0.16 ± 0.29 mm and 0.22 ± 0.78 mm as reported by the tracker.
