Steering Actuated Probes under Magnetic- and Ultrasound-Guidance for Targeted Interventions

Manual percutaneous insertion of rigid and unactuated probes are commonly used during minimally invasive surgery (MIS) for delivering diagnostic agents and performing therapeutic interventions. These probes often deviate from their intended paths due to tissue deformation and physiological processes. Inaccurate probe placement may lead to misdiagnosis, ineffective therapy, or traumatic effects due to medical complications. The ability to accurately steer the probe close to the organ would permit a gamut of novel diagnostic and therapeutic options, including on-site pathology and targeted drug delivery. Such an advance would truly revolutionize MIS. Thus, the goal of SAMURAI is to design a robotic system to steer magnetically-actuated flexible probes using ultrasound (US) images for accurate feedback, and thereby enable precise delivery of agents to a designated target. There are several challenges: 3D models describing the evolving probe shape are not available, while the real-time control of flexible probes using 3D US images and magnetic fields has not been demonstrated. These challenges will be overcome by using non-invasively (via US) acquired tissue properties to develop patient-specific biomechanical models that predict probe paths for pre-operative plans. Intra-operative control of flexible probes with actuated tips will be accomplished by integrating plans with data from US images and optical sensors. Ultrafast US tracking methods will be coupled to an electromagnetic system to robustly control the probe. A prototype will be evaluated in clinically relevant scenarios with realistic physiological functionalities. SAMURAI involves clinical, research, and industrial collaborations (e.g., UMCG, UNC Chapel Hill (USA), KIT (Germany), DEAM, IMDS, Technobis, and Siemens). The knowledge gained will be applicable to a range of flexible instruments, and to an assortment of personalized treatment scenarios. This research is strongly motivated by the existing need to further reduce the invasiveness of MIS, improve clinical outcomes, minimize patient trauma, and enable treatment of inoperable patients.