Towards a Robotic System for Minimally Invasive Breast Interventions

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A New Method of Force Control for Unknown Environments

Current robotic systems are expected to interact with unknown environment where controlling the interaction forces becomes an important issue. We propose a new control technique for force control on unknown environments that tunes the force controller based on online estimation of the environment parameters. However, the proposed approach overcomes the need for precise estimation of environment parameters, which are needed in many system identification-based force control approaches. This framework uses an artificial neural network (ANN)-based proportional-integral (PI)-gain scheduling force controller to track the desired force by adjusting control gains such that error in parameter estimation can be accommodated. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed control framework. Finally, the advantages and limitations of the proposed controller are discussed

Robot Assisted Real-time Tumor Manipulation for Breast Biopsy

Abstract—Breast biopsy guided by imaging techniques such as ultrasound is widely used to evaluate suspicious masses within the breast. The current procedure allows the physician to determine the location and extent of a tumor in the patient breast before inserting the needle. However, there are several problems with this procedure: the complex interaction dynamics between the needle force and the breast tissue will likely displace the tumor from its original position necessitating multiple insertions, causing surgeons ’ fatigue, patient’s discomfort, and compromising the integrity of the tissue specimen. In this work, we present a new concept for real-time manipulation of a tumor using a robotic controller that monitors the image of the tumor to generate appropriate external force to position the tumor at a desired location. The idea here is to demonstrate that it is possible to manipulate a tumor in real-time by applying controlled external force in an automated way such that the tumor does not deviate from the path of the needle. A laboratory experiment has been presented on a phantom that demonstrates the essence of this concept. The success of this approach has the potential to reduce the number of attempts a surgeon makes to capture the desired tissue specimen, minimize tissue damage, improve speed of biopsy, and reduce patient discomfort