Development of a two DOF needle driver for CT-guided needle insertion-type interventional robotic system

We present a compact and lightweight two Degrees of Freedom (DOF) needle driver to be applied to a teleoperated needle insertion-type interventional robotic system. The interventional slave manipulator is located beside the patient bed inside a CT scanner room. Physicians manipulate a master device, separately located in the control room, in order to control needle placement. The needle driver provides one translational motion and one rotational motion to a biopsy needle, and the needle is easily detachable from the needle driver. We performed several experiments to measure the repeatability and the insertion force of the needle to evaluate the basic performance of the proposed needle driver. The maximum error of the repeatability was 0.16 mm and the standard deviation was 0.0058 mm. The maximum insertion force of the needle was about 2.2 kgf, which meets the minimum insertion force of the needle for needle insertion-type interventions. Therefore, we expect the suggested needle driver is suitable to the clinical environment for CT-guided needle insertion-type interventions.