In this section

Mechatronics in Medicine

The MIM Lab develops robotic and mechatronics surgical systems for a variety of procedures.

Head of Group

B415C Bessemer Building
South Kensington Campus

+44 (0)20 7594 7046

What we do

The Mechatronics in Medicine Laboratory develops robotic and mechatronics surgical systems for a variety of procedures including neuro, cardiovascular, orthopaedic surgeries, and colonoscopies. Examples include bio-inspired catheters that can navigate along complex paths within the brain (such as EDEN2020), soft robots to explore endoluminal anatomies (such as the colon), and virtual reality solutions to support surgeons during knee replacement surgeries.

Meet the team

Mr Ayhan Aktas
Casual - Student demonstrator - lower rate

Dr Daniel Bautista Salinas
Research Associate

Dr Kaiwen Chen
Research Associate

Mr Zejian Cui
Research Assistant

Mr Connor Daly
Research Postgraduate

Emeritus Professor Brian L Davies FREng
Emeritus Professor

Mr Zhaoyang Jacopo Hu
Research Postgraduate

Dr Hisham M Iqbal
Research Associate

Mr Alex Ranne
Research Postgraduate

Professor Ferdinando M Rodriguez y Baena
Co-Director of Hamlyn Centre, Professor of Medical Robotics

Dr Jialei Shi
Research Associate

Mr Spyridon Souipas
Casual - Other work

Ms Emilia Zari
Research Postgraduate

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Pinzi:2021:10.1109/TBME.2021.3060470,
author = {Pinzi, M and Watts, T and Secoli, R and Galvan, S and Baena, FRY},
doi = {10.1109/TBME.2021.3060470},
journal = {IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering},
pages = {1459--1466},
title = {Path replanning for orientation-constrained needle steering},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2021.3060470},
volume = {68},
year = {2021}
}

Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Introduction: Needle-based neurosurgical procedures require high accuracy in catheter positioning to achieve high clinical efficacy. Significant challenges for achieving accurate targeting are (i) tissue deformation (ii) clinical obstacles along the insertion path (iii) catheter control. Objective: We propose a novel path-replanner able to generate an obstacle-free and curvature bounded three-dimensional (3D) path at each time step during insertion, accounting for a constrained target pose and intraoperative anatomical deformation. Additionally, our solution is sufficiently fast to be used in a closed-loop system: needle tip tracking via electromagnetic sensors is used by the path-replanner to automatically guide the programmable bevel-tip needle (PBN) while surgical constraints on sensitive structures avoidance are met. Methods: The generated path is achieved by combining the ”Bubble Bending” method for online path deformation and a 3D extension of a convex optimisation method for path smoothing. Results: Simulation results performed on a realistic dataset show that our replanning method can guide a PBN with bounded curvature to a predefined target pose with an average targeting error of 0.65 ± 0.46 mm in position and 3.25 ± 5.23 degrees in orientation under a deformable simulated environment. The proposed algorithm was also assessed in-vitro on a brain-like gelatin phantom, achieving a target error of 1.81 ± 0.51 mm in position and 5.9 ± 1.42 degrees in orientation. Conclusion: The presented work assessed the performance of a new online steerable needle path-planner able to avoid anatomical obstacles while optimizing surgical criteria. Significance: This method is particularly suited for surgical procedures demanding high accuracy on the desired goal pose under tissue deformations and real-world inaccuracies.
AU  - Pinzi,M
AU  - Watts,T
AU  - Secoli,R
AU  - Galvan,S
AU  - Baena,FRY
DO  - 10.1109/TBME.2021.3060470
EP  - 1466
PY  - 2021///
SN  - 0018-9294
SP  - 1459
TI  - Path replanning for orientation-constrained needle steering
T2  - IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2021.3060470
UR  - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000641967300002&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
UR  - https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9359507
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/92442
VL  - 68
ER  -