Preliminary Evaluation of a MRI-compatible Modular Robotic System for MRI-guided Prostate Interventions.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) guided robotic interventions have been introduced in order to advance prostate cancer detection and treatment. To overcome problems of such robotic interventions, we have been developing a pneumatically actuated MRI-compatible modular robotic system for MRI-guided transperineal prostate intervention and its interventional procedure. For system evaluation, a series of experiments have been conducted and this paper reports a needle insertion experiment using prostate phantom and patient mockup trials. The needle insertion experiment resulted in noticeable consistent error in one direction, which we will investigate further. Nonetheless, patient mockup experiences suggest that the modular robotic system and its interventional procedure are well integrated and implemented in clinical environment.