Needle steering and motion planning in soft tissues.

In this work, needle insertion into deformable tissue is formulated as a trajectory planning and control problem. A new concept of needle steering has been developed and a needle manipulation Jacobian defined using numerical needle insertion models that include needle deflection and soft tissue deformation. This concept is used in conjunction with a potential-field-based path planning technique to demonstrate needle tip placement and obstacle avoidance. Results from open loop insertion experiments are provided.