Modelling and Simulation of Needle-Tissue Interaction in Robotic Surgery

Abstract

In robotic surgery practical applications one of the main bottlenecks is to accurately model tissue and needle interactions, in such modelling generally needle is taken as biocompatible material and tissue a elastic, plastic and viscous material. In this study, we present an adaptive finite element algorithm for simulating the indentation of the needle into tissue which is gelatin like viscoelastic material, the path of the needle takes a unique and non-predetermined route. Apart from the modelling the tissue and needle other aspect of the work requires proper boundary conditions and application of the load which mimic the real-world scenario. A cohesive zone model is employed to describe the fracture process, The distribution of strain energy density in the surrounding tissue is utilized to determine the direction of crack propagation. The simulation results presented in this study are centered on the deep penetration of a bevel-tip needle with a programmable design, which offers steering control by modifying the offset between interlocked needle segments. We primarily discuss the relationship between how size and number of mesh affect the stress in modelling tissue-needle interaction. We have done modelling and simulation in ANSYS software.