Design and control of a novel magnetic resonance imaging-compatible breast intervention robot

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the most frequent cancers and a major cause of cancer death in women. In this article, the design and control of a novel magnetic resonance imaging-compatible breast intervention robot are proposed. The dimensions and tolerance of the robot system are considered, and a novel pitching mechanism is designed to achieve a dexterous operation in the limited space. The magnetic resonance imaging compatibility of the robot materials is tested. The nonmagnetic structure and compact Cartesian mechanism of the robot allow it to operate safely in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. According to the robot’s structure, a kinematics analysis based on a coupled motions model is established. The workspace simulation analysis of the robot proves that it is suitable for the whole breast surgery. To control the needle insertion tasks, the overall control system in the form of “personal computer (PC) + single-chip micyoco (SCM)” is designed. Finally, the motion control experiment is carried out, and the robot positioning error is 0.37 mm, which proves that the breast intervention robot and its control system designed in this article can meet the requirements of breast intervention.