A Novel Respiratory Follow-Up Robotic System for Thoracic-Abdominal Puncture

The application of robotic puncture system in thoracic-abdominal puncture (TAP) surgery has been hindered by the undistinguished accuracy on account of the respiratory motion. In order to mitigate this challenge, a respiratory follow-up robotic system (RFRS) is designed for accurate surgical puncture. Notably, a control strategy on robotic puncture is proposed to compensate the tissue deformation under the effect of clinical respiration. With the real-time analysis of breathing motion, the movement of robotic arm is composed by follow-up compensation related to respiratory motion and insertion toward the target. An online target location model proposed here aims to restrict the surgical instrument overlapped with the planned target, increasing the accuracy, safety, flexibility, and agility of puncture procedures. Experimental results suggest that the presented system achieved outperforming accuracy, movement capabilities, and robustness. It is promising that the RFRS will be effective in TAP by analyzing breathing motion for tissue deformation compensation.