Development of a MR-compatible cable-driven manipulator: Design and technological issues

In this paper, we focus on the technology issues to be solved to develop a cable-driven robot compatible with Magnetic Resonance Imaging constraints. This study is based on the design of a new compact cable-driven manipulator with remote actuators, initially developed for prostate interventions. One of the originalities of the system is to use an instrumented structure to evaluate the cable tensions and lengths in order to perform an adequate control. The sensors assessment has been experimentally achieved and the necessity to introduce a new control strategy using the developed sensors has been demonstrated.