Development and evaluation of an identification method for the biomechanical parameters using robotic force measurements, medical images, and FEA

This paper presents a new identification method for the biomechanical parameters of human tissues for the purpose of improving the accuracy of dynamic organ simulation. We describe the formulation of the method, and also design a robotic system to implement the method using a robotic probe, a medical imaging device, and a numerical simulator for the finite element analysis (FEA). We carried out an experiment using an experimental system and a tissue phantom to verify the effectiveness of the method. The results of this experiment show that the Young´s modulus of the tissue phantom can be estimated with the experimental system. We also compared the estimated values of the Young´s moduli with the measured values from a rheometer. These results confirm that the identification method and the system design, proposed and developed in this work, are effective for accurately simulating organ behavior.