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. 2016 Feb;32(1):138-149.
doi: 10.1109/TRO.2015.2504981. Epub 2016 Jan 19.

Design, Additive Manufacture, and Control of a Pneumatic, MR-Compatible Needle Driver

David B Comber  1 , Jonathon E Slightam  2 , Vito R Gervasi  3 , Joseph S Neimat  4 , Eric J Barth  5
Affiliations

Design, Additive Manufacture, and Control of a Pneumatic, MR-Compatible Needle Driver

David B Comber et al. IEEE Trans Robot. 2016 Feb.

Abstract

This paper reports the design, modeling, and control of an MR-compatible actuation unit comprising pneumatic stepper mechanisms. One helix-shaped bellows and one toroid-shaped bellows were designed to actuate in pure rotation and pure translation, respectively. The actuation unit is a two degree- of-freedom needle driver that translates and rotates the base of one tube of a steerable needle like a concentric tube robot. For safety, mechanical stops limit needle motion to maximum unplanned step sizes of 0.5 mm and 0.5 degrees. Additively manufactured by selective laser sintering, the flexible fluidic actuating (FFA) mechanism achieves two degree-of-freedom motion as a monolithic, compact, and hermetically-sealed device. A second novel contribution is sub-step control for precise translations and rotations less than full step increments; steady- state errors of 0.013 mm and 0.018 degrees were achieved. The linear FFA produced peak forces of 33 N and -26.5 N for needle insertion and retraction, respectively. The rotary FFA produced bidirectional peak torques of 68 N-mm. With the FFA's in full motion in a 3T scanner, no loss in signal-to-noise ratio of MR images observed.

Keywords: Magnetic resonance compatible; additively manufactured actuator; concentric tube robot; flexible fluidic actuator; medical robotics; pneumatic systems; sliding mode control; stepper motor.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
CAD model of prototype with helix-shaped concentric tube needle.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Diagrams of (a) linear FFA and (b) annotated cutaway view.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Diagrams of (a) rotary FFA, (b) cross section orthogonal to central axis, and (c) half corrugation shear deflection.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
2-DOF actuating mechanism with linear and rotary safety brackets.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Mechanism for sensing transmission tube linear displacement and axial rotation.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Photograph of the additively manufactured prototype.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
Linear bellows characterization of stiffness and damping.
Figure 8.
Figure 8.
Rotary bellows characterization of stiffness and damping.
Figure 9.
Figure 9.
Linear positioning of transmission tube with hybrid controller.
Figure 10.
Figure 10.
Rotary positioning of transmission tube with hybrid controller.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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