Towards Design and Development of an MRI Conditional Robot to Enable Curvilinear Transperineal Prostate Biopsy

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In-bore MRI prostate biopsy offers improved visualisation and detection of significant prostate cancer; however, it is not widely practiced in cancer diagnosis due to its associated costs. METHODS: This work introduces the first prototype towards a 7-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) MRI-conditional piezoelectrically actuated robotic system for transperineal prostate biopsy. The robot enables needle insertions in the desired trajectories. Kinematic and static models of the active needle as well as automated control of the robot are presented. RESULTS: It is shown that the controller can force the needle to realize the reference sine and triangular bending angles with an accuracy of 1.78 and 1.88°, respectively, in air. The trajectory tracking capability of the system in free space is shown with an RMS error of 0.86 mm and a standard deviation of 0.36 mm. CONCLUSIONS: The robot's capability to steer the needle towards target inside a phantom and extract a sample was evaluated.