Magnetic Needle Steering and Applications for Less Invasive Surgery Methodology

Medical technology, while improving greatly with time, often requires a sacrifice in the form of invasiveness in order to reach target areas within the body, such as the brain, liver, or heart. This project aims to utilize a magnetic, flexible needle design to reach these target areas for surgery and drug administration with minimal invasiveness. The metallic needle tip is guided by an external system consisting of a UR16e robotic arm with a magnetic end effector. As a longer running project, the primary focuses of this research are to develop the system by which the robotic arm guides the needle, investigate and implement fiber Bragg grating sensors as a means of real time path imaging and feedback, and conduct preliminary tests to validate that the needle is accurately controlled by the robotic arm. Testing with different mediums such as gel or phantom tissue, and eventually animal experiments will follow in a future publication due to time constraints.