A MRI-guided robot for neurosurgery: Optimization, registration and tracking

In this paper the design of a novel ultrasonic motor (USM) actuated robot system and a new infrastructure of automatically MRI-guided intervention for open MRI-guided neurosurgery are presented. The targeted clinical applications of the proposed robot are based on minimally invasive surgery procedures, such as biopsy and brachytherapy. Workspace optimization is conducted based on the operation workspace, design requirements and the constrained opening of the actual MRI scanner. To automatically undertake the alignment and orientation of the surgical needle throughout the neurosurgical procedures, a registration phantom was designed to determine the transformations between the MRI coordinate system and robot coordinate system. The tracking theory was then derived. The surgical procedure based on real-time MRI-guidance was reported.