In breast cancer screening, lesions may be found which need to be biopsied to check for malignancy. Some lesions are only visible on MRI, requiring an MRI-guided biopsy procedure. Current manual systems are inaccurate, and there is demand for an MR-safe surgical robot that performs the task semi-automatically. At RaM, the Sunram 7 biopsy robot has been developed to do biopsies, but control is currently complex and not intuitive.
In this thesis, research will be done to find the optimal way to control the Sunram 7 robot to perform biopsies in a breast (phantom) in a way that could potentially be used in hospitals. Example key aspects are accuracy, reaction speed (latency), user-friendliness, and versatility. The result will be a working prototype of the chosen controller.
Some aspects of investigating:
- Controllers in literature: reading papers about similar robots and their controllers
- Requirements/wishes from potential users: interviews to learn their preferences
- Definition of surgical task: biopsy target location and approach angles
- Forward and inverse kinematics of Sunram 7: current and target joint vector
- Calibration of Sunram 7
- Control of pneumatic stepper motors
- Input method
- Method of visualization and/or feedback
- Implementing the chosen controller(s)
- Experiments
- Evaluation of controller performance: what are key evaluation parameters? E.g. speed, precision, and qualitative user feedback.
- Etc.