Revolving Robotic Needle Driver
Abstract (Set) Image-guided robots are manipulators that operate based on medical images. These are modern medical tools with applications in most medical fields, allowing the physicians to perform interventions not only under direct vision, but with the additional help of the transcutaneous data. They have the potential to precisely target the disease or the intervention site in a percutaneous, minimally invasive, less traumatic, least disruptive fashion. Most needle robots position and/or orient a needle guide and the needle insertion is than performed manually by the physician by inserting the needle through the guide. Currently, systems are being developed to enable an automated means of inserting the needle using needle drivers. This document reports a new needle driver, which is perhaps the most complex, feature rich driver today, and shall quickly gain traction in the marketplace. Description (Set) The main function of the Revolving Needle Driver (RND) is the insertion and retraction of the injection needle. The RND is attached to the robotic orientation module, which can orient in two orthogonal directions while maintaining the fixed location of a point. In the RND this fulcrum point is located at the tip of a nozzle. In operation the nozzle is placed at the desired skin entry point, so that before inserting the needle, the orientation of the needle can be adjusted with the RCM by pivoting about the skin entry point. The nozzle is placed on the skin, the orientation is adjusted (with the RCM) so that the needle points towards the desired target, and then the needle is advanced with the RND. The RND presents two independent motion axes, one for inserting the needle and the other for spinning it. The needle is spun from its head through a gear transmission built together with the gripper of the needle. The RND includes mechanisms for releasing the needle quickly, automatically, and very smoothly, without moving or pushing it. The needle is held by its adapters in two grippers at the head of the needle and in close proximity of the skin. The head gripper spins and inserts the needle while the barrel gripper guides its direction. Each gripper has two finger-like arms that fasten together for holding and swing aside for releasing the needle. Two force sensors are also included in the driver. One measures the interaction between the nozzle of the needle and the skin in three component direction. The other measures the axial force of needle insertion with a built in custom torque sensor measuring the drive of the needle insertion mechanism. The nozzle force sensor is built in the lower arm supporting the barrel gripper. Proposed Use (Set) Needle robots have been investigated with all medical imaging modalities. Image guided robots are commonly used in the following types of needle intervention procedures:•Biopsy
•Therapeutic injection
•Thermal ablation
•Brachytherapy
•Percutaneous surgery (e.g. kidney stone extraction)
Inventor(s): Stoianovici, Dan ,Gruionu, Lucian,Mazilu, Dumitru,Patriciu, Alexandru,Petrisor, Doru
Type of Offer: Licensing
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