A Real-Time, Semi-Autonomous Navigation Platform for Soft Robotic Bronchoscopy

IF 4.6 2区计算机科学 Q2 ROBOTICS

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters Pub Date : 2025-03-25 DOI:10.1109/LRA.2025.3554104

Daniel Van Lewen;Yitong Lu;Frank Juliá-Wise;Armaan Vasowalla;Christopher Wu;Jennifer Yeo;Ehab Billatos;Sheila Russo

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Abstract

Navigating through the peripheral lung branches poses a significant challenge in diagnosing lesions during bronchoscopy. Soft robots are well-suited to address current limitations in bronchoscopy due to their scale, dexterity, and adaptability. In this letter, we propose a real-time, semi-autonomous navigation platform that leverages a soft continuum robot with an outer diameter of 2.5 mm for tip steering and a UR5e robot arm for insertion, translation, and rotation. Closed-loop feedback is provided via on-board visualization and electromagnetic tracking. Steering capability and workspace are characterized to demonstrate sufficient robot tip dexterity. A driving algorithm combined with a YOLO-based computer vision algorithm is developed to enable the robot to steer toward the target branch along preplanned paths. Multiple successful navigational experiments were performed within an in-vitro lung phantom to validate the proposed platform. The scale of the robot allows for successful navigation deep into the smaller, peripheral branches of the lung (6th generation) and exits the lung phantom, demonstrating the ability to reach the lung periphery with an average error at the target location of 1.1 mm.

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用于软机器人支气管镜检查的实时半自主导航平台

在支气管镜检查过程中，在肺部外围分支机构中导航是诊断病变的一大挑战。软体机器人由于其规模、灵巧性和适应性，非常适合解决目前支气管镜检查的局限性。在这封信中，我们提出了一种实时、半自主导航平台，利用外径为 2.5 毫米的软连续体机器人进行尖端转向，并利用 UR5e 机械臂进行插入、平移和旋转。通过板载可视化和电磁跟踪提供闭环反馈。对转向能力和工作空间进行了鉴定，以证明机器人尖端具有足够的灵活性。开发的驱动算法与基于 YOLO 的计算机视觉算法相结合，使机器人能够沿着预先计划的路径转向目标分支。在体外肺部模型中进行了多次成功的导航实验，以验证所提出的平台。机器人的规模允许其成功导航至肺部较小的外围分支（第 6 代）深处，并退出肺部模型，证明其有能力到达肺部外围，目标位置的平均误差为 1.1 毫米。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters Computer Science-Computer Science Applications

CiteScore

9.60

自引率

15.40%

发文量

1428

期刊介绍： The scope of this journal is to publish peer-reviewed articles that provide a timely and concise account of innovative research ideas and application results, reporting significant theoretical findings and application case studies in areas of robotics and automation.