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{Donder:2023:10.1109/TBME.2022.3209149,
author = {Donder, A and Rodriguez, y Baena F},
doi = {10.1109/TBME.2022.3209149},
journal = {IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering},
pages = {1072--1085},
title = {3-D path-following control for steerable needles with fiber Bragg gratings in multi-core fibers},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2022.3209149},
volume = {70},
year = {2023}
}

Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Steerable needles have the potential for accurateneedle tip placement even when the optimal path to a target tissueis curvilinear, thanks to their ability to steer, which is an essen-tial function to avoid piercing through vital anatomical features.Autonomous path-following controllers for steerable needles havealready been studied, however they remain challenging, especiallybecause of the complexities associated to needle localization. Inthis context, the advent of fiber Bragg Grating (FBG)-inscribedmulti-core fibers (MCFs) holds promise to overcome these diffi-culties. Objective: In this study, a closed-loop, 3-D path-followingcontroller for steerable needles is presented. Methods: The controlloop is closed via the feedback from FBG-inscribed MCFs embed-ded within the needle. The nonlinear guidance law, which is a well-known approach for path-following control of aerial vehicles, isused as the basis for the guidance method. To handle needle-tissueinteractions, we propose using Active Disturbance Rejection Con-trol (ADRC) because of its robustness within hard-to-model en-vironments. We investigate both linear and nonlinear ADRC, andvalidate the approach with a Programmable Bevel-tip SteerableNeedle (PBN) in both phantom tissue and ex vivo brain, with someof the experiments involving moving targets. Results: The mean,standard deviation, and maximum absolute position errors areobserved to be 1.79 mm, 1.04 mm, and 5.84 mm, respectively, for3-D, 120 mm deep, path-following experiments. Conclusion: MCFswith FBGs are a promising technology for autonomous steerableneedle navigation, as demonstrated here on PBNs. Significance:FBGs in MCFs can be used to provide effective feedback in path-following controllers for steerable needles
AU  - Donder,A
AU  - Rodriguez,y Baena F
DO  - 10.1109/TBME.2022.3209149
EP  - 1085
PY  - 2023///
SN  - 0018-9294
SP  - 1072
TI  - 3-D path-following control for steerable needles with fiber Bragg gratings in multi-core fibers
T2  - IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2022.3209149
UR  - https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9900442
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/99745
VL  - 70
ER  -